Piñeiro does the double in Austria……. but local hero Bortolotti edges ever closer to claiming the championship.

31/08/2011

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Having scored a resounding maiden Formula Two victory at Brands Hatch in July, Spanish teenager Ramon Piñeiro completed a hat-trick with back to back wins on Austria’s Red Bull Ring on August 27^th/28^th. The nineteen year old claimed pole position for Race 1 on Saturday, and was never challenged for the lead as he headed the local hero and series leader Mirko Bortolotti to the chequered flag by a comfortable 5.4 seconds. Mihai Marinescu claimed third place nine seconds further back, thereby denying Brit Alex Brundle the final podium position which he had been disputing with the ever-improving Romanian throughout the race.

The race was marked by a first lap, first corner incident in which German Johannes Theobald’s car performed a spectacular barrel-roll after locking wheels with Jack Clarke’s. The incident was captured by the on-board camera of our man James Cole’s Comma-sponsored car and can be seen here on YouTube. Theobald escaped totally unscathed, Clarke recovered to finish fifth, and cameraman Cole vaulted an impressive ten places from the grid to chalk up ninth place ahead of the final points scorer, Plamen Kralev.Theobald’s brother, Julian, finished sixth ahead of British newcomer to F2, Luciano Bacheta – like Piñiero, a graduate from Formula Palmer Audi – who made an impressive debut to finish seventh ahead of the more experienced Frenchman, Benjamin Lariche.

Race 2

Having nailed pole position for Sunday’s Race 2, Bortolotti was penalised two grid positions for impeding Spain’s Miki Monras on one of his flying laps. Swiss Christopher Zanellawas thus promoted to pole position, with Race 1 winner, Piñiero, joining him on the front row. Once again, the qualifying times were tellingly close, with the front three rows being covered by less than a second, the top five by a fraction over 1.2 seconds and only Alex Brundle upholding British honours with tenth position on the grid. 

Under pressure from Piñeiro and running wide at turn two on the opening lap, Zanella was quickly demoted to fourth place as Bortolotti and Marinescu also capitalised on the Swiss driver’s error. It set the order for the rest of the race, with Piñeiro commanding events and resisting a late charge from Bortolotti to head the Austro-Italian by 1.2 seconds at the chequered flag.  Marinescu was unable to match the pace of the two front runners, but nevertheless had almost a three second cushion over Zanella at the end to claim his second podium finish of the weekend and move up to eighth place in the points table. Fifth through to ninth places went to Kelvin Snoeks, Tobias Hegewald, Max Snegirev, Benjamin Laricheand Mikel Mac, while Bacheta topped his productive first weekend with another points finish in tenth place from fifteenth on the grid.

There was less luck for the other Brits. Comma-sponsored James Cole had brake problems throughout and was unable to mount any sort of challenge, while Jack Clarke and Alex Brundle both retired after featuring in first corner incidents.

Comma has been Technical Partner to FIA Formula Two, and the exclusive supplier of engine oils, coolants and maintenance chemicals to the championship since it was launched in 2009. All 24 of the identical 500bhp Williams F1 designed Formula Two race cars are lubricated, cooled and serviced with maintenance products supplied by Comma. 

You can read detailed race reports, view the complete championship standings and keep up with all the other latest FIA Formula Two news at the excellent official Formula Two website.