Oliver Bearman was surprised to finish seventh on his debut in Jeddah after being chased by rivals on softer tyres at the end of the race.
The Ferrari substitute driver moved up four places from his starting position to finish seventh on his debut.
But when Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris emerged from the pits behind him with 12 laps to go, Bearman expected they would pass him. The Ferrari driver was running a worn set of hard compound tyres, while his pursuers had switched to softs.
“I saw on the screen that they were pitting,” Bearman told the official F1 channel, “I knew they were coming out and I knew they would be on at least a medium or a soft, at least a faster tyre. I could see them on my dash coming quite quickly, but then the gap started to stabilise.
“When they left the pits I basically accepted that they were going to come by at some point. then at some point they started to slow down and then eventually stabilised. So it wasn’t that stressful.”
He had to make his hard compound tyres last longer than planned after an early Safety Car period, during which he discarded the softs he started on.
“It was a bit unfortunate with the Safety Car, it didn’t play into our hands. But that stint at the end on the hard, especially on the final laps when I had the guys on soft behind, it was flat-out. It was like quali lap after lap, which was really fun.”
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It was a great race,” he added. “I think we managed everything pretty well.”
Once the threat from behind faded, Bearman backed off to ensure he reached the chequered flag. “In the last three laps I took a bit of more margin to the walls,” he said.
Bearman admitted the words of team principal Frederic Vasseur were ringing in his ears. “That was a lot of pressure, of course, especially from Fred. The walls are close here and he wanted me to bring back the car with four wheels still on it.”
However Bearman said he could have done a better job of overtaking Nico Hulkenberg, who he was stuck behind for several laps after his pit stop.
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“I think I executed a good race. My only regret is that I was a bit inefficient trying to pass Nico. Because, honestly, I was in a faster car, and I should have overtook him more quickly.
“He used his experience well to use the battery in the right places and it took me a couple of shots. The problem is, when you drain the battery trying to overtake and…
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