HAZELWOOD’S FRUSTRATION CONTINUES
Reigning Super2 victor Todd Hazelwood has had a fraught time so far at Albert Park. Photo: LAT
Debutant Todd Hazelwood has had a tough initiation to Albert Park, but a Race 2 incident, which involved Simona De Silvestro and Garth Tander has left the Matt Stone Racing crew with a big job to get back out for this evening’s Race 3.
“Not sure about the car,” said Hazelwood.
“Obviously, we have a fair bit of work to do, I copped a hit at all angles and both corners in the front, both corners in the rear. It copped a pretty big hit in the rear, but I have full faith in the team to get out there.”
Hazelwood had been struggling with set-up issues, but engineer Wes McDougall had improved the car, which made Hazelwood confident of moving forward up the order. However, contact with De Silvestro broke his steering as he ended up in the Turn 6 tyre barrier.
“From my instance, Simona was just driving into my door the lap before as well and then she essentially finished me off, which is pretty frustrating because it is the second time I’ve been caught up in someone else’s stupidity.”
“We had a bit of a hiccup in Qualifying, but we got on top of that and had a good race car. This morning, starting 21st and being in wet conditions we felt that it was a good opportunity to move forward and now this has happened.
Hazelwood emphasised how important it was for he and the team to get miles, especially at tracks where they haven’t been to. It leaves the driver frustrated at some of the driving standards towards the back of the field.
“We have to just take the punches I suppose, but although we’re a new team we do want to get some laps, we don’t want to be caught up in other people’s mess all the time. We’ve only got a handful of resources and we’ve only got a small bucket of money to be taken out of as well, so it’s alright for these other drivers that turn their brains off now and then.
“It would be good if some of the drivers raced fair and clean at the back of the field.”
For more of the latest Supercars news, pick up the latest issue of Auto Action, on sale now. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.
