Andreas Zuber - Donington race after accident where Andreas got pushed out by Gommendy
Andreas Zuber started the first ever Superleague Formula race with a lot of hopes and finished in a brilliant sixth place at the wheel of the Al Ain single seater in Donington, UK. In race 2, a very strong unexpected rain fall stopped Zuber's race efforts in the early laps of the race as his car was pushed out of the race after an aquaplaning incident with Tristan Gommendy, FC Porto's car.
Despite no testing before the first ever race, Zuber had qualified his car on the fifth row after a strategic mistake from the team in qualifying as he did not go out a second time during the session.
In dry conditions, the start was perfect for all 17 cars on the grid with Beijing Guoan keeping the lead in 28-lap race where no tyre changes or refuelling were allowed.
Despite an incident, which required the safety car to be deployed, the battle on track was fierce. Andreas Zubers' Al Ain car was up to fifth place lapping in regular 1.20.726 gaining on the cars ahead of him: Beijing Gu'aon, AS Roma, Totthenham Hots, PSV Eindhoven.
Andreas Zuber (Al Ain) commented: "It was the first time I have taken a rolling start. It worked pretty well because I overtook two cars at the start of race 1. Then Borussia Dortmund crashed into me and that broke the rear diffuser. So it was a pretty difficult race for me. But the speed was there. I was reasonably confident with the pace even if we encountered some small strategic problems over the weekend.
I had a tough time keeping Liverpool FC and FC Porto behind me. It was a rough battle. Liverpool FC finally passed me on lap 25, three laps before race end. I suppose it has to do with the accident at the start of the race and also Donington track where races are tricky because there are constantly changing conditions.
I was confident that the engineers were able to repair the car for our second race and they did. I tried to complete a good start from sixth, as the grid for race 2 is reversed.
I was hoping to do a good job despite the rain that changed our strategy as we have to be on wet tyres with different settings for this kind of weather. The cars are wide and difficult to drive and to turn on this track that is very narrow. So that is hard for overtaking.
Even if I like rain a lot and I was hoping to overtake more cars at the start, I could not show my strength after being pushed off in the first lap of the race 2.
There was nothing I could do to continue. Despite this adventure, I would like to thank the team for doing a great job and the Al Ain club for supporting me so strongly."
- Agnes Carlier, also photos -
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