Costa And Venturini One Step Away From Glory At Magny-Cours

The worst forecast came true and rain conditioned today's qualifying sessions and, above all, Eurocup and Formula Renault 3.5 races at Magny-Cours. First weekend races which didn't brought the expected result to the EPSILON team.

Albert Costa Credit: Epsilon Euskadi

Giovanni Venturini carried an excellent performance out at the first and only qualifying session of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. Pole position holder until the session's end, Venturini was pushed back to second right under the chequered flag. Miguel Otegui was also among the strongest drivers but was condemned to twelfth due to penalty. Genís Olivé, ninth, and Alex Riberas, fifteenth, were the worst affected by the yellow and red flag showed on qualifying. Red flag following which Riberas had an accident that seriously damaged the rear end of his car. Damages the mechanics managed to fix right on time to go out for the race.

Equally excellent was Albert Costa's qualifying session at the Formula Renault 3.5, who showed a faultless control of the situation imposing with authority in the session. However, a dramatic last second effect by Guerrieri snatch the pole by 79 thousandths.

Qualifying sessions were held over a wet track although it started raining a lot heavier at mid-day leaving the races to be challenged under pouring rain and conditions so adverse that turn the races into a lottery.

Giovanni Venturini had a good start at the Formula Renault 2.0 race, although he gave away two positions on the first lap that he couldn't get back with the good pace he was carrying and finished fourth, adding eight important championship points. In spite of the position he was starting from, Miguel Otegui performed a good race, fighting and rapidly winning positions to finish fifth. Alex Riberas also moved up and earned one point with his tenth position today. The innocent victim of the race was Genís Olivé who was hit by another car following a multiple accident when driving on the sixth position. The Championship leader Korjus was the race winner followed by the local driver Pic and the Finnish Weckstrom.

With more and more water on the track, the Formula Renault 3.5 race was going to be a hard one. And it was. Albert Costa couldn't make his second position on the grid count dropping back to the fifth position after the start. An incident trying to overtake another car five laps to the end forced him back in the garage to clean the car's radiators air intakes resuming the race in eighth position which granted him three points. Keisuke Kunimoto's race wasn't easy either starting from the seventh row but managed to avoid a few incidents and overcome an intense understeering to end up sixteenth. Mikhail Aleshin imposed himself ahead of Guerrieri and Coletti.

#3 Giovanni Venturini - 4th: "My start wasn't bad; I was actually overtaking Pic when Korjus surprised me from behind. On the next corner I slightly lost the car when exiting and lost another position. The track was full of water and I couldn't get those positions back. It is a shame because starting second I was hoping to finish on the podium but tomorrow we have a new opportunity that I don't want to waste."

#2 Miguel Otegui - 5th: "After what happened this morning, we couldn't expect much. However, I think we did a pretty decent race moving seven positions up. The truth is that, even if the track wasn't in very good conditions, I felt quite comfortable and was able to keep a good pace. The fight with Honkavouri was interesting and gratifying to won the battle. Let's see what can we do tomorrow."

#4 Alex Riberas - 10th: "I wasn't sure if we would be able to race after the accident during qualifying and I really want to thank my mechanics because of what they did to have the car ready within three hours. They managed to fix the car but there wasn't time left for setting the car up for wet so I had to go out to the race using a dry set up. It was frankly difficult and, in spite of everything, I was able to finish and get one point. It is not much but I really hope to get a good result tomorrow for my team."

#1 Genís Olivé - DNF: "The truth is that I don't know what happened but, suddenly, I was out of the race. We had just started! The car was working well and I had managed to get positions back but a chain accident put an end to everything. The set up had improved a lot with respect yesterday's practice and, therefore, I hope for a good race tomorrow."

Imanol Zubikarai - FR2.0 Team Manager: "As we feared, race was highly conditioned by the rain. The cars' set up was good both for dry and wet but there was so much water that, under those conditions, the result was unpredictable. All drivers did as much as they could. Venturini starts again tomorrow from the second position on the grid so I hope we can take advantage of this second chance we have."

#15 Albert Costa - 8th: "Following this morning's qualifying session, i was hoping for a good race result today. Unfortunately, conditions changed a lot and I made a mistake on the start which cost me the podium. I tried to get positions back but I never felt so comfortable. At the end, I was trying to overtake another driver and he blocked me. I had to get out on the grass to avoid crashing and brushed the wall. It could have been a lot worse but had to enter the pits to clean the radiators' air intake because the engine temperature was rising a lot. At least I could finish and add some points but now I am just focused on tomorrow's qualifying and race."

#16 Keisuke Kunimoto - 16th: "It was a difficult day. Yesterday we did a few set up changes, which worked well this morning. However, during the race, with so much water on the track, I suffered of understeering. Let's hope it won't rain tomorrow but, anyway, now we are going to analyze all data in order to find out what happened and what we can do."

Albert Fàbrega - FR3.5 Team Manager: "Starting from first row I was expecting Albert to manage a better result. Nevertheless, it was a hard race, held under tricky conditions and packed with incidents that, in this case, played against us. A bad start and having to enter the pits to clean the radiators up made him finish in the eighth position. At least, that got him a few Championship points. Keisuke improved a lot throughout the race under circumstances that aren't easy for him. Tomorrow we have another opportunity and I really hope not to waste it."

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