Tan rues what might have been
Yuey Tan and the Dorr Havelock Racing Team had to settle for the worst start to a race season in three seasons over the Sepang F1 GP weekend.
In what was promising to be a fantastic start to the 2014 season after a successful pre-season test, Tan only managed to finish 7th in category during the opening round of the PCCA season.
Things began to go wrong in qualifying, where Tan was stuck behind different drivers throughout his first and second stints on circuit. “We just never managed to find the right spot on the circuit,” said a less than happy Tan. “We tried to time it correctly after our first pit stop but it just wasn’t meant to be after I got stuck behind Alex for quite a few laps. Didn’t expect that would’ve been the case and I don’t know what he was doing going so slowly but it happened. After the tyres were past their best, I tried to push but spun on a hot lap into turn 14 as the pressures never came up pussyfooting behind Alex.”
After qualifying, Tan set a time that put him 4th in category, going into the race which was not where he wanted to be.
The only race of the weekend was set at 1:30pm on Sunday, in a tightly fought affair. Tan started 4th in category, and worked his way up through the traffic and first lap carnage to 2nd place, and held that position for much of the race. Battling hard with Francis Tjia throughout the race, Tan held on till the last lap where things took a turn for the worse.
On the final lap of the race, Tjia entered turn 5 just in front of Tan, closing in on the inside line with Tan carrying a little more speed. As Tjia turned in onto the line, Tan had nowhere to go, spinning off the circuit and ended the race only ten corners from the end.
“Francis raced well and I think that perhaps things could’ve played out differently though I am gutted that we didn’t managed to finish on the podium. The top spot is the target this season and only after one race, I am trailing Alif by 11 points and Francis by 9. It’s going to be a long season this is for sure but a massive deficit is not where we want to be. It’s still early though so we will be battling hard to do better in Shanghai next month.”
Tan ended up recovering, finishing 7th in category far below where he had hoped to be. For sure he will be looking forward to Shanghai for a better result.
“Want to say thank you to my engineer Minal and the mechanics Charlie, Noel and Mike. They all worked super hard on the weekend and I didn’t manage to deliver for them. Next time boys. Let’s go get them! It can only get better from here!”
