The weather for today’s 40 lap Feature Race at the Red Bull Ring, round five of the 2017 FIA Formula Two Championship, was cloudy with temperatures similar to yesterday with air and track figures of 29° and 41° respectively. Following Qualifying Louis had finished 12th and Gustav 20th but a post-qualifying penalty to Sette Camara and De Vries stalling on the grid promoted both men two places to 10th and 18th at the start. Both the Racing Engineering cars were starting on the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft compound tyres and switching to the P Zero Yellow soft tyres at the mandatory pitstop.
It was a difficult opening lap for Louis as he was pushed wide as the cars left the grid and again into the first corner forcing him off-track and then contact with Gelael once again meant he left the track so, at the end of lap one, he had dropped to 15th position. He was now chasing Visoiu who was at the back of a large group of cars and on lap nine Louis took his pitstop, fitting a set of Pirelli soft compound tyres which dropped him to 12th which put him 2.3 seconds behind Boschung. The young Swiss soon began to close the gap to the Campos car and on lap fourteen the gap was down to 1.6 seconds and three laps later he was on the gearbox of King (who had been passed by Boschung) and he was soon ahead of the MP Motorsport car but King used DRS to repass the Racing Engineering car with Louis immediately sitting on his rival’s gearbox. Amazingly ten laps later, on lap twenty-five, the two men were still fighting with the gap at 0.5 seconds with neither man able to gain an advantage.
The two men were now lapping in almost identical times with Louis unable to pass but King equally unable to pull away but on lap thirty Louis lost the back of his car and ran wide losing a place to Visoiu. On the following lap Gelael pushed his way up the inside of Louis forcing him off the track dropping another place and losing momentum which then allowed Canamasas to pull level and the two men made contact on the straight and the Rapax car took the position. Another place was lost to De Vries and on lap thirty-three Louis had dropped to 15th and his lap times were falling away and he was soon passed by Ghiotto with three laps remaining and on lap forty he lost another place to Sette Camara to finish in 17th position.
Gustav had a good opening lap passing Jeffri and Marciello to start lap two in 15th but he was then repassed by the Trident car and he lost another place to Sette Camara to drop to 17th. On lap seven a number of cars who had started on the Supersoft tyres pitted promoting Gustav to 10th but on the following lap the Racing Engineering car stopped to switch to the soft Pirelli tyres and he resumed the track in 17th. The young Swede then began a hard battle with de Vries with the gap constantly at less than one second but by lap twenty-five Gustav fell away a little to be two seconds behind. Gustav now began to improve his pace and the confusion between his teammate and Canamasas allowed him to gain two places and then on lap thirty-five he overtook De Vries to take 12th. The Racing Engineering driver was now one of the quickest men on track and the initial 4.9 second gap to Visoiu was soon down to 0.6 seconds but as the laps ran out Gustav had to settle for 12th at the flag, 0.3 seconds behind the Campos driver.
An ultimately disappointing day for the Racing Engineering team but both drivers showed very good pace on the soft compound tyres which means that Gustav has a good chance to make it into the points in tomorrow’s Sprint Race while Louis will be determined to show that he is back on the pace. |
|
Team Comments:
Sebastien Viger, Technical Director: “Both drivers had a good start off the line, Gustav gained positions but Louis was squeezed in and lost some places. Louis then pitted as soon as possible and had a really good pace back on the track making up positions. He was fighting for a virtual top 8 finish. Unfortunately, he lost a lot of time in his fight with King, made a couple of mistakes, ruining his tyres and dropped back. This is a shame given his early pace and considering the points we lost. Gustav was a bit cautious at the beginning of his prime run and lost positions. Even though he had a great pace during the last third of the race, the result was a bit short for the potential recovery. All in all, it's a shame we didn't translate today's pace into points, when they are so badly needed.”
Louis Delétraz: “I had a good start into corner 1 and in corner 2 I had contact from the back which, I think, damaged the car a bit. Then my pace was pretty good and we looked good for points. Unfortunately, when I overtook King I made a mistake and he repassed me. I got stuck behind him destroying my tyres and I could not keep them alive. We had rear degradation and dropped more and more and there was nothing to do anymore, but we will do our best tomorrow.”
Gustav Malja: “I had a quite good start, I tried to stay on the outside of corner 1, which worked quite well and I passed 3 or 4 cars. Marciello had a train in front of him, so he had a tow and could take his position back. After I think we extended our super soft stint for too long. I pitted after Louis and we stayed out one more lap to pass Gelael, which was not ideal. I felt well on the primes, especially towards the end of the race when I passed both Rapax cars and Louis. There are a lot of positives, we gained 7 positions. Tomorrow we will improve again, both the car and myself and then we go for tomorrow's race.” |
|
