Pedro de la Rosa was particularly optimistic heading into the Canadian Grand Prix, having out-qualified both Marussias in a car which was looking after its tyres particularly well. He was saddened after both he and team-mate Narain Karthikeyan retired in the early stages on Sunday, but upbeat because of the improvement.
After the Indian spun at Turn 1 before stopping at Turn 4, the Spaniard’s race ended in the pit lane with overheating and heavily smoking brakes.
“It was a shame because we were having our best race of the season,” de la Rosa said after stepping from the car. “From the first few laps they were telling me through the radio to cool the brakes and I did everything I could but, although we held out a few more laps, the degradation was too high and we weren’t going to make it to the end so we made the right decision, which was to retire.
“Although it might sound surprising, I’ve got a good taste in my mouth because we’ve completed the best weekend of the year and I had a lot of fun ahead of the Marussias and close behind the Caterhams.
"I take away the most important thing and that is that we’ve improved notably - and that is very satisfying.”
HRT is effectively a new team for 2012, with José Ramón Carabante’s Hispania Group having sold the outfit to financial institution Thesan Capital.
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  L. Hamilton | McLaren | 1:32:29.586 |
| 2. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | +2.513 |
| 3. | S. Perez | Sauber | +5.260 |
| 4. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +7.295 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +13.411 |
| 6. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +13.842 |
| 7. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +15.085 |
| 8. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | +15.567 |
| 9. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +24.432 |
| 10. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +25.272 |
| Full results | |||
| Pedro de la Rosa | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Pedro de la Rosa photos | |||
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