Wehrlein defends performance against Haryanto

PascaPassAug.5 - Pascal Wehrlein has defended his performance alongside Manor teammate Rio Haryanto in the first half of 2016.

Both are rookies, but German Wehrlein entered the season rated much more highly than Haryanto, with the Indonesian's seat significantly backed by government-linked sponsors.

However, Haryanto has managed to qualify ahead of the Mercedes-supported Wehrlein five times out of 11 races.

"Yeah, it's a good result," said Haryanto, who may not return to the Manor cockpit after the summer break after his backing ran dry.

But Wehrlein, who at 21 is two years younger than Haryanto, argues that in the actual races, it is not so close between the Manor duo.

"Qualifying is one thing and the race is another," he told the French magazine Auto Hebdo.

"Regarding the latter, it's 11-1 in my favour, including the tenth place in Austria. You don't score points on a Saturday," Wehrlein insisted.

So he said he is happy with the first half of his maiden F1 campaign.

"The initial aim was to score at least one point this season and we already have," said Wehrlein. "Thanks to that, we are tenth in the championship in front of Sauber so I don't think we could have expected better."

Now, Wehrlein's future at Manor is unclear, and he is being linked with a potential move to Mercedes-powered Force India or even the Ferrari B-team Haas.

When asked about 2017, he answered: "I have no idea.

"I have a one year contract so I'm just waiting. Nothing is ever perfect in a first season, but Austria speaks in my favour and the second part of the season will give me even more opportunities," said Wehrlein.

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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