Oliver Bearman reveals key mistake which almost wrecked career-best finish

Oliver Bearman has revealed how a minor mistake in the Dutch Grand Prix almost wrecked his career-best finish in F1. 

The Haas driver started from the pit-lane after qualifying 19th and slowest of all after Lance Stroll did not set a lap-time, and was one of two drivers to employ a hard tyre strategy. 

Both he and team-mate Esteban Ocon started on the C1 rubber, running long in an attempt to benefit from a late safety car before a switch to softer rubber.

After staying out through the Lewis Hamilton safety car, Ocon and Bearman were ninth and 10th in the order just as Charles Leclerc exited the pits on Lap 53 with Ocon stopping for his change moments before Leclerc was wiped out by Kimi Antonelli.

Under this safety car, Bearman took the opportunity to pit for medium rubber, restarting in 11th place and primed for an assault on the points.

Using these fresher tyres on the contra-strategy, he climbed to seventh place on the road, before being moved up to sixth after Antonelli's 15s penalty was applied, taking a career-best finish, eclipsing his seventh on debut for Ferrari at the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP. 

"It's been a long time coming, and if you start from the pit-lane, you need a bit of luck to get there," Bearman told media, including RacingNews365 after scoring points for the first time in a grand prix since 10th in Bahrain.

"The most difficult thing was restarting on the [hard] tyres after every safety car because as the tread gets thinner, it's really difficult to retain temperature in those tyres, and I spent the entire stint within DRS.

"It was good to be there, but it also destroys your tyres, particularly at the front, so I was really holding on for dear life at the end. 

"[After] the safety car came out and I had fresh tyres, I was very happy but then flat-spotted them straight away at Turn 1.

"It is the annoying thing about this track, there is a crest going down the main straight, so if you brake on that, your tyre gets flat-spotted, so for the last few laps, I was really holding on with vibrations."