AVF has up-and down Race Day at the Hungaroring
The AVF by Adrián Vallés team had to deal with a fair amount of trouble today at the Hungaroring, in qualifying 1 and race 1 for the World Series Renault 3.5 event at the Magyar venue. The weather was once again a concern: while the qualifications were run in the dry, a thick rainfall struck right before the start of the first race, complicating thing for teams and drivers also because, in the closing stages, the rain stopped and the asphalt started to become dry again.
Zoël Amberg, who had to content with 19th in qualifying following to a spin, was off to a great start and also survived an unavoidable contact at the first corner. Unfortunately, a technical problem forced the 21-year-old Swissman to retire on lap 18.
Dutch female racer Beitske Visser delivered a solid performance as she progressively improved her feel with the car despite the tough weather conditions for a rookie. The 19-year-old from Dronten improved her position during the day and now looks forward to keep the same momentum in Qualifying 2 and Race 2, scheduled respectively at 10:00 and 14:00 local time.
Beitske Visser – Q1: P18 – R1: P17
“Today everything felt much better. The more laps I run, the more confident I get and in the closing stages of Race 1 I was just one and a half second off the leader. In the end, with the track becoming drier, we had to manage the tires hitting the wet spots to keep them cool but it was ok, and I hope to continue the same way in Race 2. There is definitely room for even more improvement”.
Zoël Amberg – Q1: P19 – R1: DNF
“In qualifying maybe I pushed a little too much on a kerb and got caught out, meaning I ended up spinning and had to recover during the race. The start was pretty good and I passed several cars, but then somebody had a problem at the first corner causing a bakcup. I was forced to brake very hard and touched the car I had in front. The pit limiter even came in but I continued. Unfortunately, as the race progressed, I also started to experience fuel pressure problems and the car lost power, forcing me to retire”.