Will Stevens says he is pleased to have finished his first race in Formula 1 as he came home in 17th place for Caterham.
Stevens was drafted in by the team to race upon their return to the sport following a two-race absence and he briefly battled Fernando Alonso as the pit stops played out.
"We completed the objective of the day, and that was to finish the race, which is good not only for me but also for the team – we can be pleased," he said.
"I struggled quite a bit during my first stint on the Option tyre, trying to keep it up to temperature at the start during the formation lap, so I had a lot of graining on the front. But the middle stint wasn’t too bad and I was able to get into more of a rhythm.
"Towards the end I was feeling good in the car and it feels really good to have completed my first Formula 1 race! I want to thank all the fans once again for giving this team another chance to race, this is where we belong."
Kamui Kobayashi was forced to retire near the end of the race.
"It’s a real shame to finish the season with a retirement, but unfortunately this is what happened: I started to feel some strange vibration on the car and a couple of laps later it started to be undriveable, so the team decided to retire the car for precaution," he said.
"Up until then, it had been a solid race, we had found a good pace and I was enjoying myself. Overall, it’s been a very positive weekend and I’ve been impressed with the whole team’s effort – it wasn’t an easy task but, thanks to the fans continuous support, we got here and they gave us that extra boost to carry on fighting."