Oliver Bearman reflects on Lewis Hamilton battle after making F1 history

Haas’ Oliver Bearman created a slice of F1 history by becoming the first driver to score points for two different teams in his first two grands prix.

Stepping in as a replacement for Haas regular Kevin Magnussen, who was serving a one-race ban for accumulating 12 penalty points over a 12-month period, Bearman claimed the final point on offer in Baku by finishing 10th.

The 19-year-old Briton, who will race full-time in F1 next year with the American outfit, was promoted into the points after Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz dramatically crashed out late on.

After being overtaken by Mercedes legend Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps, Bearman praised the seven-time world champion for the “very clean but hard” battle.

“You know when you go around the outside that he’s going to leave you space, which is a nice feeling,” Bearman explained.

“Like in Turn 1, I knew that he wasn’t going to put me in a wall, which is a bit less sure with some other drivers. That’s a nice feeling and it’s always very clean but hard when I was racing him.”

Bearman continued: “I was really pushing hard for some laps to overtake Franco and my tyres were getting really hot. It was exactly at that point that he pounced on me and could overtake me quite easily.

“After that, I needed a few laps and I caught him back up and was almost catching the DRS again. It’s annoying that I let him overtake but you can’t make little mistakes with a guy like that behind.”

Bearman snuck ahead of Haas teammate Nico Hulkenberg after the German slowed, fearing he had picked up damage from the incident involving Perez and Sainz.

“It went green again and I managed to get him with Lewis,” Bearman added.

“It was an overtake. I’m sorry for him. He had a problem to lose the position also to Franco, but I’m happy to take the point.”

Bearman scored points on his F1 debut in Saudi Arabia as a stand-in for Ferrari, finishing seventh.