Zhou Guanyu believes that his performance at the Spanish Grand Prix weekend marked one of his best events in his Formula 1 career.
During Saturday’s qualifying session, he advanced into Q2 while team-mate Valtteri Bottas was eliminated in the opening stage.
Zhou scored his second top 10 result of the year in the grand prix, crossing the line in ninth place to match his score from Australia earlier in the year.
“I really enjoyed today, it was a well-executed race from my side,” Zhou reflected after the race.
“I think these have been some of the best two days for me in Formula 1, in terms of performance.
“I had a good first lap, and that was crucial to give us the opportunity to get something out of this race: our pace was strong, although there were times in which we had to manage our tyres wisely.”
Zhou had a near miss with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda late in the race, when they went wheel to wheel at the first turn.
Zhou took to the escape road and Tsunoda was issued a five-second time penalty which dumped him out of the points.
Reflecting on the incident with Tsunoda, Zhou said: “I knew I had to keep the pressure on the others to bring home a result and, when the opportunity was there, I tried to force them to make a mistake.
“At the end, I knew I had the pace to take Yuki [Tsunoda]: I had DRS, I was half a car ahead going into the corner, but I wasn’t given any space and didn’t have any other choice than to take the escape route to avoid contact.
“In the end, things worked out well and we were able to bring home two points, which was a good result.”
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