PREMA Racing's challenging weekend continued today in Bahrain with Race 1 of the FIA Formula 3 Championship at the Middle Eastern circuit. Starting from P14 of the grid for the Sprint Race, Mexican Noel León inched close to a points finish and wrapped the day up in P11. The race was punctuated by safety-car situations, which slowed down the recovery efforts.
Unfortunately, contact between the team's two other cars on lap 3 forced Brando Badoer to make an unscheduled pit-stop, while Ugo Ugochukwu had to retire. Badoer eventually crossed the finish line in P22.
Race 2 will wrap the weekend up tomorrow on a 22-lap distance.
#1 - BRANDO BADOER
"Very tough race as I got taken out in lap 3 and I had to make a pit stop due to a puncture. I went out of the pits last and then I couldn't make many moves. All eyes on tomorrow. We need to understand what went wrong in terms of pace and hopefully we will also be more lucky."
#2 - NOEL LEÓN
"A difficult Race 1, P11 in the end. We had a good first lap but we didn't have the pace to be there and with the safety cars we couldn't make some places. Good learnings for me and the team, and we will push tomorrow to finish in the points."
#3 - UGO UGOCHUKWU
"I got a good start and managed to make up a couple of positions, but then had a small contact in T1 that put us out of the race. On the positive side the pace was quite good, definitely quicker than the guys around me. We are going to try and replicate that tomorrow and try to come through the grid."