Nelsinho Piquet is eyeing points in this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, following a far more encouraging outing in Malaysia than had been the case a week earlier on his
Formula 1 debut Down Under.
The Brazilian rookie finished in eleventh place on his maiden visit to Sepang, just over 20 seconds shy of his double world champion team-mate
Fernando Alonso, and a significant improvement on a calamitous weekend in Australia when practically everything that could have gone wrong for him did. Now approaching the first circuit on the calendar of which he has prior knowledge – from his GP2 days – Piquet is buoyant.
“The weekend was certainly much more positive in Malaysia,” the
Renault ace affirmed, “and I was in a position to do lots of running in each session, which allowed me to find a good rhythm for the whole weekend. Unfortunately I did not have an ideal qualifying session, and that is something I have to improve.
“The race itself was difficult because my drink was not working and I was stuck in traffic, but I did not finish too far away from Fernando and I am happy to have completed my first grand prix – that is very important for me.”
The 22-year-old added that his next goal would be to break his points-scoring duck, after Alonso finished inside the top eight in both of the opening two grands prix of the new campaign. He predicted an ‘eventful' race ahead, even if he confessed to not being a major fan of the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.
“To be honest it is not one of my favourites,” the son of former three-time world champion Nelson Piquet Snr acknowledged, “but I do know the circuit and that is certainly an advantage for me. I will be able to start working on improving the set-up of the car with my engineers as soon as the practice sessions begin, rather than having to learn the circuit. That will allow me to approach my weekend more calmly.
