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Gutierrez eyes first points in Belgium

ESPN Staff
August 19, 2013 « Red Bull coy on Ricciardo rumours | No more Red Bull talks for Raikkonen »
Esteban Gutierrez has yet to score in his debut season © Sutton Images
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Esteban Gutierrez is targeting his first points in Formula One at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

Sauber has made a step forward in recent races with Nico Hulkenberg scoring in two of the last three grands prix and finishing just outside the top ten in Hungary following a drive-through penalty. Gutierrez has yet to score in nine races but his chances at the Hungaroring were hit by an engine problem which caused him to miss the whole of FP3 ahead of qualifying.

Having eventually retired in Hungary with a gearbox problem, Gutierrez believes he has yet to be able to display his potential in the more competitive car.

"Belgium will be an interesting race with everything we have done to the car during the past GPs," Gutierrez said. "Obviously qualifying in Hungary was not good, because of the time we lost in FP3. But I think we can manage to get into the position we were expecting, which is around P10 in Spa-Francorchamps."

Head of track engineering Tom McCullough agreed that the team should be competitive.

"We have improved the competitiveness of the C32 throughout the first half of the season and we aim to capitalise on that between now and the end of the year," McCullough said.

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