After scoring respectable finishes in last week’s virtual Monaco Grand Prix race, Andretti drivers Maximilian Günther and Alexander Sims had a difficult race at the virtual Hong Kong event in Round 5 of the Race At Home Series.
Günther came into the event as the championship points leader and was hoping to extend his points lead over Pascal Wehrlein. Though problems caught him on the first lap as he would jump the start. After jumping the start, he was then involved in the Lap 1 pile-up that occurred in the first corner of the track. Günther served the drive-thru penalty after jumping the start, however, more issues arose for the Andretti driver. Toward the end of the event, he missed the chicane and wrecked. This saw Günther fall all the way back to 19th-place and he was eventually eliminated from the race due to the Battle Royal format.
“Of course, it’s a shame that I didn’t just miss out on the podium for the first time this season, but failed to score any points at all. Unfortunately, I made a mistake at the start and moved forward too early. Things then got chaotic in turn one, but I made it through somehow. My drive-through penalty put me so far back that I had to risk everything to try and score some points, but then I hit the wall and was forced to retire from the race.”
Since Günther was the championship leader coming into this race, but was forced to retire early, he would lose the points lead to Wehrlein by five points. Günther now has 65 total points in the standings.
Meanwhile, his teammate, Alexander Sims had a poor showing and never got a chance to shine.
Like Günther, Sims was also involved in the Lap 1 incident in the first turn. After the incident, Sims could never rebound to show what he was capable of doing. The British racecar driver retired due to the accident and was relegated to a 22nd place finish, out of the race, and only earning one point.
“To be honest, that was a dreadful race. I didn’t do well in the rain in qualifying, which meant I had to start way back. Then multiple cars suddenly appeared together right in front of me in turn one. I had no chance of avoiding them and my car was badly damaged. I headed to the pits for repairs, but I was then so far behind that I retired immediately.”
