Pascal Wehrlein says he was disappointed after failing to catch the Renault of Kevin Magnussen during the Chinese Grand Prix.
The Manor driver found himself running as high as fourth early on after most of the field pitted under the safety car.
He knew it would be short-lived and was pleased to finish 18th, ahead of several other cars, but said Manor still needs to make a considerable step forward.
"It was a good race, with some positives to take away," he said. "Once again we were fighting with some other cars and managed to overtake a few as well. The start went well and then the first few corners were a bit hairy with cars and debris all over the place.
"We did well to avoid the chaos and made up 17 places from the start to be 4th for a few laps. That was a nice feeling, although I knew it would be short-lived. The car was working fine but I think 18th place is where the car is right now at this event.
"At the end we saw the chance to gain on Magnussen, which is why we went for the super-softs. It was a good feeling to be hunting him down but we only had a limited window on those tyres and it wasn’t quite enough in the end.
"Everyone finished, so with no DNFs we got ahead of four other cars on merit, but we have to make a good step forward now to make a big difference in the races ahead."
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