VALENCIA, SPRINT RACE: EARLY CLASHES HAMPER BLAMELESS SCUDERIA COLONI DRIVERSMotor racing showed Scuderia Coloni his roughest face in the Valencia Sprint Race: both drivers had the potential for a strong showing, but early race clashes stole from them any chance of a good result.Stefano Coletti’s race ended right at Turn 1: after a good start the driver for Monaco was forced to choose the outside line for the first corner, but there he found the stranded car of Ericsson and had no other choice than going in the wall to avoid it, then followed by other two fellow competitors in a pile-up that required the deployment of the Safety-Car.

If the first lap wasn’t kind to Coletti, Fabio Onidi’s race was looking good: he had boasted a great start passing from P13 to P7, and he kept a cool mind in both the Safety-Car restarts (the second SC period came after a crash between Palmer and Cecotto).Fabio was quick and ready to attack Berthon for sixth place, something that he actually did on lap 6: Onidi’s pressure forced the Frenchman into a mistake at Turn 1, where he outbraked himself and went wide. Fabio took the inside and went for the pass, but Berthon crossed his line and tore the Italian’s front wing away. Onidi went back to the pits to take on a new wing, but he got back on track in P17 and his race was virtually over.Paolo Coloni: “There’s not much you can say after such a race. Obviously we’re really disappointed because we didn’t have the time to show our potential and pace. It’s also very frustrating because both our drivers are completely blameless for what happened: Stefano didn’t have any room to avoid the crash, his only choice was Ericsson or the wall.The same goes for Fabio, his attack on Berthon was very well placed and surely he can’t be blamed for the contact, as he was the one on the right line. Anyway it’s motor racing, days like this happen and we all know that. Now we will go back to our workshop and work as hard as we can to get the result we and our drivers deserve”.