ACCELERATION14 – MONZA: SECOND WIN FOR FELIX ROSENQVIST
Felix Rosenqvist had a fantastic weekend in Italy. The Swedish driver started the second FA1 race from P4, but battled himself to the winning position during the race. Nigel Melker (NLD) had his second strike for P2 and Sebastian Balthasar (DEU) finished third. Both Italian drivers had to stop the race prematurely. Sergio Campana (ITA) started his home race from pole position, but had to give the lead to Nigel Melker in the first chicane. Mirko Bortolotti (ITA) had a bad start, made contact with another driver and had to come in after the first lap for a new front wing. Felix Rosenqvist says: “It was a confusing race. I managed to get from P4 to P2 in the first lap. I had to work quite hard to keep my opponents behind me in the first few laps. I was coming closer to Nigel, but I got new brake paddles and that changed my brake balance a lot to the rear.”
Campana and Rosenqvist were in a constant battle at that time. In the fourth lap, the driver from Team Sweden spun in the chicane: “I thought the race was over and managed to overtake just one car before the first pit stop”, Rosenqvist explained. He then dropped to P6. At the moment the pit lane opened, both Melker (NLD) and Sebastian Balthasar (DEU) – who drove second position at the time – came in for their first stop. Melker declares: “During the in-lap I noticed I had a problem with my front tires. Since it was our strategy to change the rear tires, I got those. After my stop it still went decent, but after 5 laps I started to slide and my wheels blocked.” Rosenqvist was on his way to the top again and overtook Melker just before the second compulsory pit stop.
Rosenqvist: “I didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t have any one in front of me. I had a good second stint and then they showed P1 on the pit board. I thought someone hadn’t made his pit stop and it wasn’t until the last lap that I realized I was actually driving P1. It was an amazing weekend.” Sebastian Balthasar, who started P5, lost contact with the other drivers mid-race: “At that moment I thought it was possible to get to the podium. P3 was all I could do in this race and I’m really happy with my podium place.”
Results top 5 FA1 race 2 Monza:
1 Felix Rosenqvist (SWE) — 27 laps —
2 Nigel Melker (NLD) 13.109
3 Sebastian Balthasar (DEU) 29.212
4 Richard Gonda (SVK) 30.169
5 Steijn Schothorst (NLD) 42.383
The next Formula Acceleration 1 race will be at the circuit of Zolder, Belgium, on July 17 – 19.
As for the other two ACCELERATION categories, there were two different winners in the MW-V6 category: Eion Murray in race 1, and Danny Van Dongen (NLD) in races 2 and 3. In Legend Supercup, Davit Kajaia (GEO), leader of the championship, won all of the 4 races.
The next race for these categories will be in Slovakiaring on July 4 – 6.
