The French round this weekend for GP Racing was overall a positive one. Fabrizio Del Monte took third place and got one extra point at this round compared to rival Nicky Pastorelli who is in second place in the classification (there’s a 10 point difference).
Tor Graves cut the finish line in 8th place and was very close to the point zone. Maxime Hodencq was forced to retire with a damaged suspension after an accident on the second lap.
Del Monte was 4th place in qualifying. He needed a make a good start and that’s exactly what he did, overtaking both Reid and Pastorelli and setting into the second place behind Alex Lloyd.
He wasn’t able to fight off Reid’s attack and on the straight, the driver from the Village Team overook - Fabrizio didn’t want to take any risks so he kept up a constant pace instead and consolidated his third place. Pastorelli was more than 20 seconds away from him and finished in 4th place.
Maxime Hodencq’s race was dogged by misfortune during the second lap. Norbert Siedler threw Maxime off the track while trying to overtake him. Maxime wasn’t injured but his suspension was damaged and the race ended prematurely for him. It’s a real pity because the young Belgian driver started off well and had immediately made 2 positions. He even overtook Siedler and had settled into 6th place. The next race in Zolder will give Maxime the chance to seek redemption and erase this early retirement.
Tor Graves had a normal race and managed to cut the finish line in 8th place. This gives him a dose of faith after he was forced to retire in Donington. The English driver who was 10th during the qualifying session, proved to be at ease on a track that he had never raced on. At the end, the 8th place allows him to gain more experience in the single seater and encourages him to try to fight for his first points at the season finale.
Tancredi Pagiaro, Team Manager
“With Fabrizio,we have fortrified our first place position in the championship and this is important. Tor finished the race and unfortunately Maxime was involved in a accident. The team worked hard all weekend and has proven to be at the top of the category. But now the difficult part starts; there are 3 more races left and we have to be competitive till end.”
