The recent SUPERSTARS round at Donington Park delivered Luigi Ferrara plenty of satisfactions. After having set a stunning pole at his first lap despite missing practice, the Italian, fielded by R.R.T., went on to score a spectacular first win of the season in Race 1, the first overall success for the Mercedes C63 AMG Coupé.
Unfortunately for him, the yellow-colored V8 racecar was forced to retire early due to engine woes in Race 2.
Ferrara stopped by to discuss his weekend in the UK.
"The weekend has been off to a very tough start. We had to change our Mercedes engine to run at least in qualify, but I have to admit that the team did a stunning job. Then I just closed my visor and it was all or nothing. I cruised to the pole while the checkered flag was waiving, but I knew that it was too soon to celebrate. The SUPERSTARS races are always unpredictable so I knew that if I wanted to win, I had to do the best I could to pull away at the start. And it worked, as the last corner of the formation lap and the preparation for the first chicane can put a whole race in discussion. I held onto the right line and kept the lead. It was a bit of a scare to hit the oil left on-track by the Lexus at the Melbourne hairpin, for a moment I thought that it may have ended bad, but I got a clean line through the corner and cruised to win. This season, we have been deprived of some good results by mechanical problems, but we didn't surrender and continued to work hard. Now I'm looking forward to Imola, where I already won in other categories. I hope to repeat the win scored at Donington although we won't be able to fight for the title. We will try to accomplish that mission in 2014”.
“We have a quick driver and a quick car - said R.R.T. Team Manager Nico Caldarola - and finally all our efforts have been rewarded. Having developed in-house a car that is finally delivering the results we hoped for makes me particularly proud. I was sure that relying on Ferrara would have been the right choice. Being able to finally stand at the top of the podium after more than one year gives us the right focus and motivation to enter the last two rounds of the season, and I think we will have our say for wins again...”.
