F.Renault 3.5 – No points for Zeta Corse in Spa-Francorchamps

The fourth round of the F.Renault 3.5 season, held on the renowned Spa-Francorchamps circuit, didn’t add any points to Zeta Corse’s championship tally. The Russian team was relying on Spaniard talent Roberto Merhi to get a points finish, but after being taken out by Stanaway yesterday in an unfortunate first-lap crash, Roberto didn’t get any luckier today. While his race seemed to have started well thanks to a lightning-quick getaway, a reckless move by a rival on the ultra-fast Kemmel straight saw him end onto the grass at high speed, nearly losing control of his car. Merhi managed to keep it straight, but the grass and dirt collected by his sidepods hindered his engine’s cooling, limiting the car’s top speed and hence its performances.

While Merhi struggled to finish the race in P14, Russian rookie Roman Mavlanov continued his learning path with another error-free race, that saw him climb from P20 to a sixteenth place finish. Despite being at his first F.Renault 3.5 weekend on such a challenging track, Mavlanov delivered a solid performance, and is now ready to tackle the team’s home event in Moscow in two weeks time.

Roberto Merhi: Q2 – P14; R2 – P13

“In qualifying we tried some changes to the car’s setup but they didn’t work as we expected and a P14 start was the consequence. For the race we reverted to the previous solution and I was hoping for a good recovery, but fate had something different in store for us: my getaway was good and I got a good run downhill towards Eau Rouge, but when I tried to overtake Van Buuren he just pushed me on the grass at around 260 kph. I managed to keep the car under control but my sidepods got filled with grass and from then on my race was ruined. With obstructed radiators my engine couldn’t cool properly, and as a consequence the ECU reduced performance to avoid damages, a big setback on such a fast track. I could do nothing more than cruise to the finish, trying to bring the car home with no damage”.

Roman Mavlanov: Q2 – P20; R2 – P16

“Focusing on the positives, it was another error-free race in which I was able to make up some ground before the checkered flag. Anyway, I’m not too happy with my pace here this weekend, but I knew from the beginning that a challenging track like Spa wasn’t going to be easy as a rookie. Now I’ll go home and work as hard as I can to get ready for my home round in Moscow”.