Giovanni Venturini Crowned At Magny-Cours

Weather played, once again, a main role during the third and final day at Magny-Cours, adding even more uncertainty both to the second qualifying session and race of the Formula Renault 3.5 as well as the Formula Renault 2.0 race. However, unlike what happened yesterday, this time it didn't steal the hard worked reward Giovanni Venturini and the EPSILON well deserved this weekend.

Giovanni Venturini Credit: Epsilon Euskadi

The Italian driver, starting from the second line of the grid, performed a great start establishing in front ahead of the first corner. He wasn't intimidated either by the safety cars or the torrential rain that broke out a few minutes to the end, which saw a number of accidents forcing race direction to show the red flag finishing up with the race. In his way up from the eighth position damaged the front wing of his car although managed to stay in and finish seventh. Completing the race wasn't possible for the other two members of the Formula Renault 2.0 squad. Alex Riberas, starting from the 16th position, wasn't able to complete first lap due to an accident. Miguel Otegui's car suffered an electrical problem early on the race, having recovered six positions, which prevented him to finish. With today's victory, Venturini climbs to the fourth position in the Championship, consigning his team mates Olivé and Riberas, respectively, to the fifth and seventh position.

At the Formula Renault 3.5, second qualifying session didn't bring the expected result to Albert Costa and Keisuke Kunimoto, who finished 7th and 19th. A red flag at the session's end, when Costa was on a flying lap, prevented him to repeat the good qualifying result from yesterday. At the race, rain played again a key role, although this time being the intermittent drizzle which made the team switch from slicks to wet tires and slicks again right before the start. With the race being equally crazy and entering the pits twice, Costa managed to finish fifth and getting on the rookies' podium again. Situation didn't help either his team mate Kunimoto who finished 18th.

The EPSILON team heads now to the Hungarian circuit of Hungaroring where the next World Series by Renault meeting will be held from the 2nd to the 4th of July.

#3 Giovanni Venturini - 1st (34 points, 4th in the Championship): "This first victory was great but quite tricky as well with two safety cars and the final downpour. The most important was to make a good start and I didn't fail this time and led from the first corner. From there I opened a little gap but immediately the first safety car went in and lost this slight advantage. I was sharp when the safety when back in and managed to open a gap again. And again safety car but I acted well and lead with authority. When it started raining, the track was in really bad conditions and there were many accidents. It was important to be cautious to achieve the victory that we had been working for and we missed yesterday. The team did a great job and I want to thank them. A new championship starts for me today, and I hope to be able to keep the same line from now on."

#1 Genís Olivé - 7th (29 points, 5th in the Championship): "Yesterday's qualifying wasn't good and we knew it was going to be difficult. Start wasn't bad but the safety car went out right away and the second one only a few minutes later. I improved a couple of positions and some more a few laps to the end. I was on fourth position when they showed red flag and regulations say that the final classification is the one two laps before the flag is shown. Fourth points aren't much but it is important to sum in order to stay alive. I hope Hungary to be better."

#2 Miguel Otegui - DNF (18 points, 13th in the Championship): "After all what happened yesterday, I was starting from the 14th position and moving up was mandatory. I am happy with the start I did, which allowed me to improve six positions on the first lap. But the positives finish here. On the third lap, with the safety car on track, the car had an electrical problem which ended my race up. The weekend was promising and we showed a good pace but didn't finish the way we expected at all. Now the only thing we can do is to keep working for the next to be ours."

#4 Alex Riberas - DNF (25 points, 7th in the Championship): "There is not much to say rather than when things go wrong, they can always get worse. And today it was one of those days when things end up going so wrong. I was starting from the back and it was important to overtake soon as many slow drivers as possible. In one of these maneuvers, the other driver closed the trajectory and I couldn't avoid the collision. The truth is that I am frankly disappointed and I am very sorry for the team."

Imanol Zubikarai - FR2.0 Team Manager: "We are delighted with the first victory of the season, being as well the first one with the new car. Giovanni's race was excellent. Did a good start, drove with intelligence with the safety cars on track but, above all, what he did when it started raining was superb. Miguel and Alex, for different reasons, were really unfortunate while Genís did a good recovery race which wasn't rewarded. We are capable of winning and I hope to be able to repeat in Hungary."

#15 Albert Costa - 5th (36 points, 8th in the Championship): "It was a shame the red flag during qualifying because I was on a flying lap. But the real problem of the race was the rain that fell when we were on the grid already. In the end we decided to go with slicks and, therefore, it was important to be cautions on the initial laps to avoid crashing. And tactics proved to be right; the problem was to enter the pits twice, which made us loose precious time. Results didn't come along but it wasn't a bad weekend. I just hope everything to work out well in Hungary."

#16 Keisuke Kunimoto - 18th (6 points, 21st in the Championship): "If yesterday was a difficult day, today was even more. Starting so behind I had to take some risks and start with wet tires. In the end it proved not to be the best option but we had to try. I seriously hope next meeting to be dry in order to work under more suitable conditions."

Albert Fàbrega - FR3.5 Team Manager: "Unfortunately, we haven't been able yet to culminate the good job and performance showed in practice at the race. And this is exactly what we need to work on because both Albert and Keisuke deserved a better result considering their overall performances. Today's race was so tricky, both for the drivers and the strategy, and unfortunately we didn't manage to get the most out of the situation. Now it is time to concentrate and work to get a better result in Hungary."

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