30 Oct 2017

Hartley stays positive after F1 engine failure

3:12 pm on 30 October 2017

New Zealand driver Brendon Hartley believes the engine failure which ended his Mexican Grand Prix early has not prevented him from making more progress on his Formula 1 journey.

Brendon Hartley made his F1 debut in Texas and is now set to also compete in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Brendon Hartley made his F1 debut in Texas and is now set to also compete in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Photo: Photosport

Hartley had worked his way from 17th on the starting grid to 11th before being forced to pull his Toro Rosso car off the track, with smoke pouring from it.

The car began to smoke on lap 32 of 71 and by the time he pulled over, the car's engine was on fire.

Hartley finished 13th on his Formula 1 debut last week at the US Grand Prix and despite his second race not ending so well, the 27-year-old from Palmerston North was still able to put a positive spin on his situation as a whole.

"It's always disappointing not to finish a race, so I'm not the happiest man today but I'm still smiling because I've made progress compared to last week in Austin," he said.

"It's just a shame that the race was cut short and it's been quite a tough weekend: issues on Friday, I then couldn't make progress in yesterday's [qualifying] once the engine went and in today's race I lost power at the end of the straight line, then saw the white smoke and was asked to stop.

"It would've been good to get to the end of the race because I was enjoying all the battles. I now look forward to the next couple of races … hopefully things will go smoother than today, get to the end of the race and see where we end up."

Hartley qualified 13th fastest for the race but copped a grid penalty after turbo failure stopped his car in qualifying, dropping him to 17th.

He had driven well in the early part of the race to move into 11th, just one place outside the point-scoring positions, before disaster struck.

Toro Ross team principal Franz Tost said the engine failure was related to an oil consumption issue but did not stop him from assessing the performance of Hartley and team-mate Pierre Gasly, of France, in satisfactory fashion.

"Regarding our weekend, it's been a difficult one for us, as we didn't have any trouble-free practice sessions," Tost said.

"We had Power Unit failures every day and therefore we couldn't prepare the cars in a proper way. With all the penalties, we had to start from the back of the grid and from there it's very difficult to overtake and score points.

"Nevertheless, I must say that both Brendon and Pierre have done a good job - we have to take into consideration that they are new to the team and they were not able to complete as many laps as we had planned at the start of the weekend.

"They definitely made the best out of this situation."

Britain's Lewis Hamilton wrapped up his fourth drivers title after finishing today's race in ninth.

Having qualified third on the grid he had a dreadful start across the first three turns dropping down to 19th but he inched his way up the field.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen won the race.

-RNZ/Reuters