It has been a tough day for G4 Racing in Monza, but the team still managed to work his way up to the top-10, scoring more points. The Italian track hosts the final round of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine this weekend. Coming from a successful season, G4 Racing is aiming to add more trophies to his name, but qualifying 1 has been quite difficult for the Barcelona-based Swiss team.
Because of a tire problem, Michael Belov was just three tenths short from pole position, but such a small margin means thirteen place on the grid in the very competitive FRECA field. The Russian had to work hard in the traffic to climb back to the top-10, clinching ninth place in the end and two more points.
Callum Hedge had an impressive debut on European soil, after a successful career in New Zealand and Australia. He managed to cross the finish line in P22, with 36 cars on the grid. After a cautious start, he was able to recover a few places, proving already a strong pace. Axel Gnos was a bit unlucky, and after some nice moves he made a small mistake, which cost him a couple of position. Tomorrow the final race of the season is scheduled at 12:05 local time.
Adrián Muñoz (Sporting and Technical Manager): “Qualifying 1 strategy didn’t go as we expected, as we took a different approach and this time we didn’t get the results according to the speed that we showed in the previous sessions. Michael had an issue with his set of tires, out of our control and had to make a much as he could to set a decent time. For the race we sorted the problem and he manage a good start but he was in a group blocked by traffic. Axel did a good job considering where he was starting and had an intense race with some good battles. Callum did a really good job considering that it is his first race in single seaters, improving lap by lap and understanding how difficult is fighting with the high level of the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine. He improves every time he gets in the car. Tomorrow is a new race day, full of opportunities for our drivers”.
Axel Gnos (Driver): “Didn’t drive properly in qualifying 1 and had to start from the back. After two laps I got to P26 with some nice moves and overtakes. In the end I made a mistake, while fighting with another driver and lost a few places. On a positive notes I had a good pace, did some nice overtakes. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow on wet”.
Callum Hedge (Driver): “The qualifying was not bad, we were missing about a second from pole. This is not the position where we want to be, but for my first race with a single-seater with slick tires, I can be happy. I am improving in every session and the race has already been a good step forward compared to qualifying. I paid for a bit of inexperience at the start, despite the reaction at the traffic light being very good. In the first laps I was a bit scared, I could have been more aggressive. Then I found my pace, managed to recover some positions and to move up in the standings. The times at the end were similar to those of the drivers in the top-10 and now we can look forward to race 2 ”.
Michael Belov (Driver): “In qualifying we had a problem with the tires which slowed us down. I had very strange sensations and when I turned right I had a completely different response than when I turned left. We just missed three tenths from pole. In race 1 we managed to solve the problem and the car was very good, but starting in the group I got stuck in traffic, losing a few positions. I wasted time getting rid of slower riders in the early stages and only in the final with a clear track did I finally find a good pace. Tomorrow is another day and I’m sure we can climb back the standings”.