Facu Regalia has had another positive weekend in GP3, this time at Silverstone.
At the wheel of his ART Grand Prix Dallara GP3/13, Regalia was one of the fastest man on track in free practice session on Friday. Saturdays qualifying session saw how Regalia set 3rd quickest time, a very promising result for race one, despite the Argentine driver wasnt absolutely happy with his performance after a small mistake on his second set of tyres.
In race one Regalia was overtaken by his teammate Conor Daly at the start, but later the American driver was penalized by jump start. The safety car was deployed on lap five and stayed out six laps before the race was green-flagged once again. Despite this Regalia kept fighting until the end, he couldnt overtake Kevin Korjus, but claimed his second podium in-a-row after finishing second in Valencia.
It was a shame because my start wasnt that good. My car was suffering with oversteer, so I needed to push hard to remain in the Korjus slipstream. I think our chances to be second were there, but a poor race start and oversteering problems were a sort of handicap. But this podium for us is quite good, and tomorrow I will start on the third row of the grid, Regalia said afterwards.
Sundays race proved to be rather good for Regalia and his team. My start today was much better, because I overtook current GP3 leader Tio Ellinas and I barely managed to do the same with Daniel Kvyat, but the straight at Silverstone is a bit short and he could block me and avoid my overtaking, Regalia explained. At the beginning, I had to slow down a bit because we were using a low drag set-up and, always in the Kvyats slipstream would have damaged my tires.
Finally Regalia came in 5th place, a good result because now Im lying 6th overall, but 4th and 5th are three and one points away from me, and we reduced the gap with the leader. So, we reached our targets at Silverstone. Another podium and today a 5th place is a good balance, he stressed.
Regalia is going to have no time to rest, because his next meeting is taking place next weekend at the Nurburgring. For this round, my motivation will be very high, after two good weekends in Valencia and Silverstone, and Nurburgring is one of my favorite racing tracks, so Im looking forward to racing there. Lets see how the weather is, dry or wet, but well be ready for everything.
Last year, Regalia finished on podium at this track while competing in the European F3 Open.
