| Yesterday’s Feature Race at the Red Bull Ring had left both Racing Engineering drivers, Louis Delétraz and Gustav Malja, outside the points but they had shown good pace on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow soft compound tyres so both men were hoping for a better result in today’s 28 lap Sprint Race. The morning start meant slightly cooler temperatures than the teams had faced in Qualifying or yesterday’s race with air and track figures of 25° and 38° respectively.
For today Gustav was starting from 12th and Louis 17th on the grid and as the lights went off Boschung was very slow away with cars having to take avoiding action but Marciello couldn’t avoid contact and the resulting accident meant the Safety Car was deployed. Additionally, Jeffri spun off at the first corner all of which left Gustav in 9th and Louis in 14th as racing resumed on lap four.
Gustav was right behind Visoiu and Latifi with De Vries and Ghiotto behind but as the cars got back to racing speed Leclerc made contact with his teammate and spun off causing a Virtual Safety Car period. On lap seven racing resumed for a second time but Gustav found himself running line abreast with De Vries and Ghiotto and the Italian driver made contact with the Racing Engineering car forcing him into the gravel. The young Swede was able to regain the track but he reported a problem with his car on the team radio and he stopped in the pits but they could find nothing wrong so he continued.
Gustav was now a huge 52 seconds behind the next car but he had not given up and he was now setting some very quick laps, faster than the leaders of the race. With ten laps to go Gustav was still running faster than any other car on the track, most of whom where over half a second a lap slower and although he could only finish 15th it was very much a case of what might have been.
Louis lost a position to Nato as the Safety Car period following the start ended but the accident to Leclerc moved him back to 14th which became 13th following the problems for Gustav. A slow lap ten, when he lost about seven seconds, dropped him to 17th with a lot of work to do and he was now chasing Jeffri who was 4.4 second ahead. As the race entered its final ten laps Louis was pushing hard but the gap to Jeffri was too much as both men were setting similar lap times and he crossed the finishing line in 13th. Although Racing Engineering have left the Red Bull Ring without any points Gustav’s speed today show that he would have had a very good result if he hadn’t been pushed off the track so the team now head to Silverstone for next week’s race weekend more determined than ever to get the result they deserve. |
