PREMA has tough run in Spielberg Sprint Race
PREMA Racing had a tough day at Spielberg. Starting from P9 and P19 in the FIA Formula 2 Championship Sprint Race at the Austrian venue, early rain led to the choice of use wet tyres on both cars.
Frederik Vesti and Ollie Bearman made good gains at the beginning, but it was soon clear that, with the rain stopping, they would have to pit for slicks. After losing track position for the pit stops, the drivers started a powerful comeback and eventually finished in the top-10.
Despite ending up out of the points zone, both cars showed promising speed ahead of tomorrow's Feature Race.
#7 Frederik Vesti
"We got a P10 finish which is not ideal, but we went for the wet tyres which at that time seemed really promising. However, it's very difficult to predict the weather and it stopped raining quite quickly. On the first or second lap I already realized that it was time to go to slicks. We boxed and in the end we moved forward in the field, also getting good information for tomorrow when we will start from P2. Hopefully we can have a strong race. Today has also been a sad day with the news from the race in Spa. I want to send my condolences to the family and friends of Dilano van 't Hoff."
#8 Ollie Bearman
"We started on the wrong tyre, which is always easy to say in hindsight but at the time it felt like the right call. Anyway, the pace was very good when we put the slicks, made some good overtakes, but after that, at the end of the race, when I was in clean air, we struggled a little with the pace and I couldn't move forward much. Generally it has been a though day also with the news from Spa-Francorchamps that really overshadowed everything else. I wish to send my thoughts and sympathies to the Van 't Hoff family."