Manor Marussia F1 Team
Alexander Rossi expressed his satisfaction after making a "successful" Formula 1 debut with Manor Marussia at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Rossi currently occupies second place in the GP2 standings but stepped up to a Manor Marussia seat in Singapore in place of Roberto Merhi.
Rossi beat team-mate Will Stevens to 14th position despite losing radio contact with his squad during the race.
"My Formula 1 debut has been a long time coming, but it has been pretty special," said Rossi.
"All the hard work to get here finally paid off and it was a fantastic feeling to be racing on the streets of Singapore in my first ever Grand Prix.
"It wasn’t the most straightforward of races; I didn’t get the best of starts, and as the procedure is quite new to me, it’s something I’ll need to work on. I recovered quite well though and managed to get a good run into Turn 5, where I was able to get past my team-mate.
"Everything was going well until around the midpoint of the race, when I lost radio communications. This was particularly challenging because of the second Safety Car period and I wasn’t able to receive instructions from the team about when to un-lap myself.
"Despite that, I think we managed everything well and I’m very appreciative of all the effort put in by the team to make my Grand Prix debut a successful one."
