Safety car gamble doesn't pay off for Aussie Jack Doohan in Bahrain, leaves him pointless
Jack Doohan left Bahrain pointless after a safety car gamble ripped the chance of scoring his first F1 points away in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The pressure continues to mount on the rookie with just four races under his belt, each finished without a point scored and behind his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly.
This weekend, Doohan came out of the gates looking strong and in better contention for a top 10 finish after a shocking crash in free practice in Japan last time out.
His team opted to gamble with the safety car late in the race and keep Doohan out on old tyres which bumped him up into ninth place as most of the grid pitted.
READ MORE: 'Everything went wrong': Red Bull melts down in Bahrain
READ MORE: 'Irritating' Spaniard finally beaten at Long Beach
READ MORE: McIlory breaks down in tears amid epic Masters victory
The safety car, caused by debris left from the collision between Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda, created a chain reaction of drivers leaping into the pits to complete their final stop of the race.
Jack Doohan answers questions in the media pen during the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain. Getty
But as the race restarted, the Alpine driver was swallowed by the grid on fresher, soft tyres, leaving him to fall down to 13th. He was then whacked with a post-race penalty for track limits which demoted him to 15th.
"Just unfortunate timing of the safety car. Six cars behind us on brand new softs and I had to push quite hard to stay in front and once one went past, they all came through," said Doohan to post-race media.
"And unfortunately we picked up a time penalty right at the end which put us back a couple of positions.
"Sitting P9 until the last... 19 laps and a solid race all the way up until then. [We] have to look at how we can keep building and get some points very soon.
"Similar to yesterday [qualifying], it was good until it wasn't. We just have to figure out how to piece it all together."
The FIA Safety Car leads Oscar Piastri driving the McLaren MCL39 Mercedes and the rest of the field during the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain. Getty
The rookie had plenty of pace in the tank, but Doohan's inability to deliver on his good performances is leaving the Aussie in a sticky situation as noise increases about a mid-season swap.
Franco Colapinto, Alpine's reserve driver is raring for a chance to get back in an F1 seat, Alpine taking the 21-year-old out last week to test the 2023 Alpine challenger in a TPC outing.
Doohan will have another chance to break his pointless streak during the final weekend of this triple-header at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
