Formula One news

Alguersuari not distracted by doubters

Jaime Alguersuari cast sceptics' thoughts aside to drive to a composed fifteenth position in his first Formula One race on Sunday. The Spaniard, F1's youngest ever driver at the age of 19, finished ahead of team-mate Sébastien Buemi despite admitting difficulties to finish over the course of the final five laps.

Jaime beats Mike Thackwell's 1980 record of being F1's youngest driver

Having finished within two seconds of the fastest practice time in both sessions on Friday, Alguersuari went even quicker on Saturday morning to wind up 18th fastest, ahead of both Force India Cars. After suffering from a throttle problem in qualifying and consequently starting the race from the back of the grid, the Barcelona-born driver completed all 69 laps of Sunday's race, finishing one down on winner Lewis Hamilton.

"I just tried to find my pace on the track, regularly and constantly, and to make no mistakes," Jaime explained to reporters "That was the target for the weekend and everyone wanted to have that, especially Toro Rosso and Red Bull; everyone asked me for that and we managed to complete the goal, which was to finish the race and not to make mistakes.

Jaime, complete with Kimi Räikkönen-style tattoo, finished ahead of team-mate Sébastien Buemi at the Hungaroring

"I think everyone is happy. Christian (Horner, Red Bull Racing team principal) congratulated me yesterday. Dr (Helmut) Marko, Franz (Tost, Scuderia Toro Rosso team principal) and everyone in the team is so happy - I'm also happy!"

What did the rookie make of comments from a number of fellow drivers who felt he was too young to compete in his first F1 race? "I don't give a s*** what the other people say," he replied. "Before coming here and doing practice on Friday, everyone was talking really badly about me but, really, I don't care - I just do what I can do, see what my expectations are and what my future is going to be."

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