Gustav Malja and Racing Engineering finish 6th in the Barcelona Sprint Race

14/05/17 Gustav Malja and Racing Engineering finish 6th in the Barcelona Sprint Race.

Once again it was warm and sunny at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain for the 26 lap Sprint Race at the second round of the 2017 FIA F2 Championship with air and track temperatures of 23° and 30° degrees respectively, the morning start making it a cooler than it had been for yesterday’s race. Following Saturday’s Feature Race, Gustav Malja was second on the reversed grid after finishing an excellent 7th after starting 18th. Louis Delétraz was starting from 11th today after gaining two positions following post-race penalties to Sette Camara and Boschung.

Gustav made a clean start as Markelov was slow away from pole position and he held onto 2nd position into the first corner but an incident between two other cars saw the Safety Car deployed. Racing resumed on lap three and Gustav held 2nd behind Latifi and two laps later the Racing Engineering car was 1.2 seconds behind Latifi and 1.5 seconds ahead of Matsushita. Over the next five laps Gustav kept the gap to Latifi to 1.5 seconds with Matsushita 1.3 seconds behind the young Swede in 3rd.

By lap thirteen, the half-way point of the race, Gustav was still 1.5 behind Latifi but he locked his front brakes going into the first corner and he lost a place to Matsushita. Gustav now came under pressure from Rowland and Albon as his car suffered from a flat-spotted tyre and although Rowland got ahead on lap sixteen Gustav was driving well and he pulled away a little from Albon. Leclerc then passed Albon and the Frenchman began to close the gap to Gustav and although he fought hard he was unable to stay ahead of the Prema car and he dropped to 5th. The final laps saw a very hard fight between Gustav and Albon with the Racing Engineering driver having to drive defensively but he was able to open a small gap and he now came under pressure from King, who passed Albon, and on the final lap the MP Motorsport driver used his DRS to pass Gustav leaving him in 6th place which is where he finished.

Louis had a very difficult opening lap falling to 16th place and he was soon involved in a big battle for 10th to 16th on lap four with Canamasas just 0.6 seconds ahead. The battle continued for the next ten laps with the Racing Engineering car now chasing Sette Camara and he passed the MP Motorsport car on lap fifteen to gain a position. Louis was now behind Canamasas again and on lap twenty the gap was 1.3 seconds but he was unable to make any more progress and he finished 14th.

A disappointing race for Racing Engineering with Gustav only able to finish 6th and the poor opening lap for Louis costing him any chance of a good result. The next round of the FIA F2 Championship will be in two weeks’ time at the legendary Monaco circuit.

©FIA F2 Championship

©FIA F2 Championship

Team Comments:

Sebastien Viger, Technical Director: “Gustav managed to keep his position at the start. He was maybe a bit too hard on the tyres at the beginning when trying to follow Latifi and, eventually, the cars behind caught up on him. Trying to defend second place, he flat spotted the tyres and therefore suffered from a big vibration for the rest of the race. From there on Gustav did a good job holding on, but the pace was not there anymore and he had to settle for 6th. In the case of Louis, his first lap was a complete mess. From there on we were stuck at the back of the field and in these conditions, he did not manage to gain back any positions and he finished in 14th. Overall, we finally scored, but we are still far away from where we want to be.”

Louis Delétraz: “My start was OK. It is always difficult when you are in the middle of the pack as a lot of problems occur there. I had to avoid crashes in turn 1 and 5 on the first lap, so twice I had to open my line, which made me lose positions and I dropped to second last. The first few laps were OK for me on balance, but then I lacked pace and could not use the tyres. This was a weekend to forget and the next one up is Monaco, which I am looking forward to discovering.”

Gustav Malja: “I am obviously not very happy with today's race. I was expecting a podium, maybe even the win. I didn't have the greatest start, but kept second position. I was then behind Latifi and managed to pull a gap on Matsushita. I struggled to attack Latifi and then Matsushita closed in on me. When he tried to get by, I locked both front tyres and with this lock up my race was very compromised. With the tyres gone I was happy I didn't drop back further and finished in sixth. We found some positives this weekend and have a lot of useful data to analyse. I want to thank the team for the work this weekend and I am looking forward to Monaco where, together, we will push for good results again.”