Rival knocks Guillem Pujeu off track in Barcelona

The Figueres native was forced to retire when Schott pushed him off the track at the first corner during F4 Spain’s race 2 on Saturday. As race 1 was cancelled on Friday due to a hailstorm, the driver of FA Racing had no chances to fight for a podium finish. Despite setbacks, Pujeu continues in title run

Guillem Pujeu experienced a hard weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which played host to F4 Spain Championship’s Round 4. Lady Luck wasn’t on his side at Pujeu’s home round where the eyes and ears of the local crowd were firmly fixed on him.

Both free practice sessions were marred by incidents triggering countless yellow and red flags – which made difficult to complete a clean lap- but with title contenders separated by just a few tenths. Later in qualifying on Friday afternoon, Pujeu clocked a lap time of 1:48.192 to take the fourth spot on the starting grid. Race 1 was cancelled due to a hailstorm when it was about to start. Pujeu set his sights on a podium finish in the single race taking place on Saturday. However, his chances were ruined a few meters after the race start as Swiss driver Patrick Scjott knocked Pujeu off track at the first corner. As a result, Schott handed a penalty afterwards.

“It’s frustrating because all your chances to achieve a good result end at the first corner when another driver pushes you off the track. I had no opportunity to avoid it. We had an excellent race pace but we couldn’t prove it. Besides, race 1 was cancelled so we couldn’t gain extra experience” said Pujeu. The Spaniard explained: “despite we weren’t lucky at recent events, we can only promise still harder work to be stronger in Jerez. The only way to fight back is working harder.”

There are eight races remaining, three in Jerez – in two weeks’ time- and five in Navarra, presumably the title decider event.