A1 Grand Prix Brands Hatch: Feature race & Sprint race

This season’s A1GP adventure of Tonio ended on Sunday at Brands Hatch with an overall improving pace that eventually helped him to land 2 points at the end of the feature race. The driver from Locorotondo, Italy, who is currently part of the Force India Formula 1 team, faced two difficult comeback races. In the sprint race, he made his way back to the top-10 despite the few laps available, thanks to a great start, a fast pit-stop and a good overall pace. On the feature race, he reclaimed even more spots at take-off, before suffering from understeer problems that increased his gap from the cars in front. He made a couple of further steps, ending up in 9th and scoring 2 valuable points for Team Italy.

Afterwards, he said: “We knew that, on a track like Brands Hatch with no big passing areas, it would have been tough to recover. We found a solution to yesterday’s problems, but it definitely came too late to aim at a top spot. We worked on the braking system and radically changed the set-up with positive results. I made good starts in both races. The first and shorter race was more concentrated, we came back as we could, we kept pushing during the pit-stop and on-track too.”

“The feature race was pretty unchanging. I passed many cars again at take-off, then I just kept my position due to the wide margins between me and the other cars around. We pushed very hard and I’m happy that we’ve scored some points at this difficult track. What I think about A1GP? I like the car and the format of the championship, but Formula 1 is still my priority.”