F1: Rossi, Manor pleased with results of first race

America's Alexander Rossi led home Manor Marussia teammate Will Stevens as the team secured its ninth two-car finish and its second-best combined race result of the season in the Singapore Grand Prix. Rossi, making his F1 debut, ended the grueling night race at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in 14th position, with Stevens crossing the line in 15th place.

“My Formula 1 debut has been a long time coming, but today has been pretty special," said the 23-year-old Rossi, who with the start became the first American to compete in Formula 1 since Scott Speed in 2007. "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  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 teammate.

"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 unlap 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.”

Team principal John Booth praised Rossi's performance – and that of the team, which had to scramble following Rossi's practice crash in practice.

"This is not an easy environment for any team member to operate in, and that's before we add a new driver into the mix," noted Booth. "Our trackside operation this week has been incredibly slick and particularly creditworthy were the substantial repairs required on both cars in the field on Friday – cars which enabled both drivers to take the checkered flag. As we saw, this was not the case with some teams further up the field.

"The drivers did an excellent job in what was a tough race, Alexander coping admirably with the pressure of his F1 debut. He delivered a solid and confident performance, while also having to contend with having no radio communications in the second half of the race, which was tricky because of the instructions we needed to give him during the second safety car period. Will also did a good job, but was battling rear tire degradation for the final stint and did well to finish the race on that set. All in all, a very positive outcome at the first of the fly-away races."

Rossi will race for Manor again in Japan, the United States, Mexico and Brazil.