Starting from third spot on the grid for race 2 of the 2012 AutoGP World Series, Giacomo Ricci of Zele-Racing had another excellent start and overtook Spavone on the run to Turn1. After being held up by Snegirev, who defendet very effetively for several laps, Giacomo was running comfortably on P1 and managed to build a 1,5 sec gap. At the end of lap 8 the leading drivers stopped all together for the mandatory pitstop. The Zele-Racing team was abit unlucky as some pitstop equipment of Ombra in the pitlane made it difficult for Giacomo to position his car properly for the pitstop in front of his crew. Because of that he lost two positions and rejoined the race on P3, but got past Spavone again within less than 2 laps only to get T-boned by Sergio Campana who clearly took too much risk in turn 1. Ricci had to retire from a perfect race with a punctured rear left tire and bent suspension.
Michael Zele:“ We came really close to win the race today as Giacomo drove a brilliant race until being taken out by Campana. It´s a shame, as everyone in the team has worked so hard in during the last weeks and days to not get rewarded for all th eeffort with a podium. But we showed that we have a very good package and our car/driver combination today was definitely strong enough to win this race.“
Giacomo Ricci:“ There was nothing i could do to avoid the crash since Campana just shunted into my left rear corner on the exit of the first chicane. We had a fantastic start, but then Snegirev was defending really clever and did not make any big mistakes, so it was difficlut to find a way past him. When i was entering to our pitstop position there was some stuff of another team in the way so i could not place my car accordingly, which probably cost us two positions. Anyway, my car was really good today and without the crash we should have won.“
more pictures to follow…
