Race 1 at Sonoma started with a bang – unfortunately a big bang, which took out Antonio Pizzonia and 2012 AutoGP champion Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. Zele-Racing driver Pizzonia, starting from P3 had a good start and run up to turn 2, when he lost control of his Lola, surfed across the grass and into the Supernova car of Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. Both drivers had to retire their cars.
Antonio Pizzonia:“ I am very sorry for Adrian and also for my Team. I made a mistake and lost the car. Real shame, because the car was quick.“
Sergio Campana meanwhile, starting from P5 dropped some positions back due to a poor getaway, but made up quite a lot of positions in the early stages of the race and lined up in fifth position behind the safetycar, which was deployed after the crash, who eliminated Pizzonia and Quaife-Hobbs. The complete field pulled into the pitlane on lap 4 when the safetycar came in. The Zele-Racing crew did a very good pitstop which allowed Sergio to rejoin the race on P4. He kept pushing until the end and his laptimes were just a fraction off race winner Pal Varhaug.
Sergio Campana:“ My start wasn´t good, that´s something i have to improve for tomorrow, but the car was very fast. I was trying to push until the end, but it was not really possible to attack Sirotkin for P3. As soon as you close in the driver in front of you, you loose downforce in the fast corners and you have to back off again. The team did a very good pitstop and normally we should be on the podium. I will do my best tomorrow.“
Michael Zele:“ I am really disappointed with what happened at the start, but now we have to concentrate on race 2 tomorrow. I hope Antonio will be ok to race tomorrow, because he hurt himself on the hand when he crashed into Adrian. The crew is fixing the car now, which sustained quite a bit of damage. On the other hand Sergio had a very good pace during the race, which shows that we are definitely able to finish on the podium, if things go right.“
