PREMA Racing secured two wins in the penultimate round of the F1 Academy series at Circuit Paul Ricard. Lining up for the French outing, the final on European soil for this year, Marta Garcia put up a scintillating showing to win race 2 and race 3.
After a challenging qualifying 1 session, the Spaniard finished sixth in Race 1 as she maximized her points score. Then, she proceeded to dominate the remainder of the day. In Race 2, she started from P3, but soon gained the lead and powered through the finish. In Race 3, she was even more outstanding going from P4 to P1 in a handful of laps.
Coming from a stellar win at Monza, Bianca Bustamante struggled in gaining the needed chemistry with the difficult Paul Ricard track. After crossing the finish line P11 in the opening race and suffering a penalty, she rounded out the top 10 in the second, before an early spin sent her to the back in Race 3. However, she still fought back to catch the tail of the pack.
Chloe Chong went very close to the points zone after showing a remarkable race pace. In the two opening races, the British-Canadian stalled on the grid but recovered with remarkable lap times. In race 3, she started from P11 and put up a hard-fighting performance. She eventually made it back to the points zone in P10 to cement her consistent growth.
#14 - Chloe Chong
“We struggled in qualifying after showing a good pace in practice, and that made it definitely difficult for the races. Unfortunately, I just lost a bit of feeling for the clutch, and that made me struggle a bit at the start, with two stalls. Actually, the pace overall was really really positive, I was happy to see that I had a 20-second gap to the car in front in race 1, and I made that gap plus a position. The pace was definitely there overall throughout the weekend. It’s a shame that we made some mistakes during qualifying and had some problems at the start. Race 3 was good as we put together everything we learned during the weekend. Got a good start, two overtakes in the first couple of laps, and from then on, we put our head down, it’s very difficult to overtake on this track, but I was just really happy to stay with the person in front, get a points finish and show that we deserved to be a bit higher.”
#15 - Marta Garcia
“It was a good weekend and it could have been even better! From qualy there was something we were missing in sector one, and we now know what it was. In the end we managed to find out the proper line there. We started to do it from race 1, but it was really difficult to overtake, we had a normal start, nothing mega, and I ended up P6. In the second race I started from P3, I just had a good start, and after the safety-car I overtook the other driver I was first for almost the whole race with the fastest lap as well and really good points. Finally, in Race 3 I started P4, and I focused on trying to get a good start. I managed to pass the leading driver, Lena, and go from there. We also had new tyres which helped, but I just did what I wanted to do, and I was really happy with more great points. There is one round left and I think we are going there in a perfect position.”
#16 - Bianca Bustamante
“This weekend really tested our fighting capabilities. We knew it would have been quite tough, I wouldn’t say this is a track I’m comfortable at, but I still came here with the mentality to win, doing all the work. Unfortunately, the pace just didn’t come during qualifying, we struggled and qualified in P13 and P10, and this meant that in the races it was always going to be a battle to move forward. I always had mega starts, passing nearly five cars in race 1 up to P10. Contact with another driver forced us to drive all race with a bent steering. Regardless of this, we managed to cross the finish line in P11. In race 2, it was a bit tougher and drivers were more competitive. In the end we still gained three positions, never giving up. In race 3, mentally I was ready to give it all, and I think I did. I was up to P9, going for a pass to P8, but unfortunately I didn’t prepare the pass enough and contact caused me to spin. I was a few second behind from last, and I had to catch up. I just wanted to improve with every lap. I set the second fastest lap and that shows that we didn’t give up until the end. It’s a big learning opportunity for me and I really did learn. It was a tough one to swallow, one of the days I won’t forget, and I’m ready to fight again soon at COTA.”