Respectable 5th For Monégasque Driver Stefano Coletti

All eyes were on their 21-year-old Monégasque driver, Stefano Coletti; his ultimate dream is to drive to victory through streets full of childhood memories. But a podium finish in front of his home crowd and Prince Albert II of Monaco was not to be, after he finished a respectable 5th.

Stefano Coletti Credit: World Series By Renualt

As usual, the race took place in front of the huge crowd already gathered for the main event of the day, the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Coletti was hopeful of a podium; his main opposition being pole-man Daniel Ricciardo, Mikhail Aleshin and the young Spaniard, Albert Costa, alongside him.

The first lap was unusually incident free and Coletti tucked in behind Costa for 4th. Greg Mansell made a sensible start to avoid any first lap incidents, but was down in 19th by the end of the first lap.

As the race unfolded, Coletti lost touch with the leading three cars. Oversteer was blamed, which left him having to cool his rear tyres regularly. This allowed American Alexander Rossi, who was on a one-race deal, to put him under increasing pressure. Coletti did enough to keep his fourth place. Meanwhile a charging Brendon Hartley did everything within his powers to pass Rossi, who put up a good fight, but eventually the pressure was too great and he made a mistake, causing him to hit the barriers heavily at Casino, ending his race in the process. Hartley then set his sights on Coletti, but it wasn't until the penultimate lap that he made a controversial overtaking manoeuvre under yellow flags to take fourth place from our frustrated driver.

Meanwhile, Mansell had a fairly uneventful race, but struggled with the car, and eventually finished 15th.

After the race team manager, John Barnett said, "Although both drivers drove well, the result was slightly disappointing; we believe we need to find more race pace so we shall be working on that between now and the next round at Brno in three weeks time. That said, Stefano Coletti is currently 4th in the drivers' championship with 20 points, and Comtec Racing is equal 4th in the team standings so its a reasonable place to be after the third round with six rounds to go."

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