Spanish duo on Radical Masters podium

Toni Forné and Álvaro Fontes finished second in race one of the Radical European Mastersmeeting at Nurburgring. In race two a flat tire prevented them scoring another podium finish but a strong fifth netted valuable points for the championship.

Álvaro Fontes and Toni Forné had an excellent debut this season on the international stage taking part in the Radical European Masters, kicking off at Nurburgring. Spanish duo, behind the wheel of the Radical SR3 entered by GRT Motorsport, was among the fastest over the weekend, from Friday to Sunday. In free practice sessions, they both finished on top in wet conditions.

That made them optimistic for Saturday and Sunday and, as shown later, the drivers lived up to the high expectations. In qualifying Forné was 2nd fastest for race one and then in race two, Fontes clocked 3rd fastest lap time on the starting grid.

On Saturday, Forné took the start and, after pitting and Fontes took over in the car. The Malaga-born driver kept fighting for the win until the very end, finally settling for second place,finishing just four tenths behind the race winner.

On the final day, Sunday, Fontes completed the first stint in third place despite spinning at the start when another car collided with him. Unfortunately a flat tyre when Forné was driving the Radical SR3 ruined his chances of getting another podium but finishing fifth.

“It was such a shame we couldn´t win race one, because we kept fighting until the very last lap and our race pace was good enough. In race two I was caught in a race incident at the start and spun. After reaching third place before pitting, a flat tire when Toni was driving made us to finish 5th. Not a bad result”, Fontes explained.

His teammate Forné added “after thick fog and heavy rain in FP1 on Friday, it was quite difficult to gather valuable information for races as the weather forecast predicted them in dry conditions. At least, in FP2 after I started on wet asphalt, Álvaro finished when the track was already drying and therefore to work on set-up for qualifying. Anyway it was quite difficult to know what road to take. The car was suffering from understeer in qualifying but we were 2nd for race one and 3rd for race two on the grid. A great result”.

Regarding the races, the Catalan driver commented “In race one, even when our set-up wasn´t perfect, we finished second quite close to the winner. In race two our win chances ran away due to race incidents and our time handicap after finishing second previously but it was a good result. Now, we already focus on Brands Hatch, in two weeks´ time”.


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