Brands Hatch Nascar Whelen Report

I have mixed feelings on the past week end as after not starting any of the 2 races in Valencia
Where I qualified 4th I had high expectations for this week end where I was to debout with team CAAL car n.25.
The week end started with a good weather forecast for UK and that was good news as 26 cars in a 1.9Km circuit racing under the rain was going to be mayem.
We struggled in free practice friday with understeer, I told myself that it could be old tires and despite that I was upbeat for a good Qualy on Saturday. When I got to the circuit Saturday I discovered that we had been driving on friday on a blown rear left damper and despite being non happy for discovering that one day too late it was good news as we must have been quicker that it looked on friday where we still fought on the top 6 positions.
A minute before Qualy a storm wetted the track and we had to switch to Wet tires unfortunatley I was given used wet tires and our set up was basically a dry one compared to others who all had new tires and went for full soft, bottom line I qualified 17th my worst ever qualifying time…! Weather got better and for the race in the afternoon I wanted to focus on pulling a quick lap in order to start in a good position on sunday' race, in Nascar Whelen Sunday race grid is made based on the quick lap chart of Saturday's race. RACE 1) Starting from 17th I knew a contact would and could have compromise my week end so I took it easy but still managed to drive trough a few cars and avoid the 2 accidents in front of me, at half way into the race I was 5th that starting from 17th was a good result but a safety car that came out at the end of the race compromized my chances to gain a podium and actually made me even loose one position at the restart, so that I finished 6th in race 1 but with a 3rd quickest time this meant that I would start from 2nd row on Sunday race and there I was to battle hard for a podium. Race 2) First start goal to gain one position and set myself behind car n.33 of Boucenna was achieved and I was ready to chase him but an incident involving 3 cars made the safety car come in at lap 1 so we had to wait 3 laps before we had a restart. At that point Boucenna did not open the gas when lights went green and I made a move to pass 1st at the first bend, there I was leading the pack at Brands Hatch, what a great feeling, heart was beating fast and felt that I had to pull away in order to get a safe margin but I noticed that my car as it had been doing over the week end had problems with the carburation and on the start finish line I lost all the advantage I gained over the lap so I was constantly trying to defend and it was not easy. At lap 7th I went too late on the breaks at Druids turn and Boucenna passed me and so I tried to follow him but I felt I did not have the speed in the straight line to keep up so I was trying to defend my position by car n.22 of Ferrando and Arrojo but with 4 laps to go I got hit on my back rear tire by a completly sensless move by car n.77 driver who punctured my tire and got a drive trough penalty for the move. Morale my podium that I wanted so much for the presence of my son Niccolo' with me was gone and so also my very important championship points. What can I say this is racing and in 20 years of racing this is the first time I ever get thrown out of a race, too bad it happend when I least wanted it.

What will come in the future we don't know but what we do now is what we can make a difference.

Good Bye Brands Hatch and thanks for letting me drive in your sexy curvy bends unharmed.