Zhou compromised race to help Bottas score

In brief

Zhou “tried to play the team game” in Mexican GP

Zhou qualified 12th and finished 13th in the Mexican Grand Prix, but his latest non-score may have proven beneficial for Alfa Romeo as team mate Valtteri Bottas scored his first point in 11 races. The rookie revealed he compromised his own race to try to support Bottas, who qualified sixth and finished tenth.

“I tried to play the team game, and I had a good stint in the mid-part with the medium,” said Zhou. “It was going well and then after I tried to give Valtteri some positions with the Alpine, which I was happy to compromise a little bit my race,” he said.

“But it was a bit frustrating in the end because I was so close to being ahead of this DRS train and unfortunately stuck behind and then it was hard to overtake them.”

He explained that Alfa Romeo “tried to use me like slowing the pack down, which makes sense waiting for maybe a Safety Car window” and he thought it was “worth a gamble” when it looked unlikely he would be finishing out of the points-paying positions anyway.

Mexican GP claims audience record

The Mexican Grand Prix promoter claimed it attracted its highest-ever attendance of 395,902 over the three-day event. A total crowd of 145,934 was recorded on Sunday alone.

Ericsson reflects on tricky start to IndyCar career

Marcus Ericsson spoke about the difficulty of moving from Formula 1 to IndyCar as he unveiled his face on the Borg-Warner Trophy, the silverware awarded to the winner of the Indianapolis 500 each year.

After five seasons in F1 with a best finish of eighth, Ericsson switched to IndyCar in 2019 and initially was also light on success. He claimed one podium in his first two seasons, won two races last year, and then was victorious in this year’s Indy 500.

“I wouldn’t say I underestimated IndyCar, but I thought I would be a bit stronger a bit earlier than I was,” he said. “My first two seasons were pretty tough, and the first year was really tough. I guess you could say the second year I thought I was sort of finding my way a little bit, but it was still a bigger challenge than I think I expected.

“But when you think about it, you’re up against guys who have been racing here for 10, 15, up to 20 years, and they know these cars and these tracks. You know naturally it’s going to take a bit of time to get on top of that.”

On his form over the past…