EU3000: Zolder: Series race one report

GONZALEZ UNSTOPPABLE IN RACE 1
BONANOMI AND HANLEY ON THE PODIUM IN ZOLDER

With a perfect race, Rodolfo Gonzalez managed to dominate the first round of the Euroseries 3000 weekend in Zolder. The Venezuelan driver, who started from the second position on the grid, overtook Marco Bonanomi right at the start, passing him on the outside of the first corner. From then on it was a lonely race for Rodolfo, who clinched a sequence of fastest lap times, building a great advantage on the competition. Untouchable for the whole race, in the last minutes Gonzalez had to deal with a faulty fuel pump, that made him slow down during the last lap, with the engine even stopping a few metres ahead of the finish line. Anyway, the Venezuelan was stronger than the misfortune that hit him in the last races, and took a well deserved win.

With Gonzalez running away, all the attention was on the struggle for 2nd and 3rd place, between Bonanomi, Will Bratt and Fabio Onidi, author of a good start which allowed him to overtake Ben Hanley. The trio raced closely, with only 1"4 beetween them, until lap 7 when Onidi, slowed by understeer, lost ground and was passed by Hanley. In the meantime Bratt, who seemed perfectly capable of keeping his 3rd place, was victim of a slow puncture, slowing down for two laps and then going off track and damaging the nose of his Lola. With this, the comeback of Ben Hanley was even easier: in the second half of the race the brit showed a really quick pace, with only the unstoppable Gonzalez quicker than him. Ben charged on Bonanomi, while the Italian decided to ease the pace a bit in the last laps. Fabrizio Crestani was 6th, ahead of Juan Carlos Sistos and Francesco Dracone.

In Zolder the paddock was astonished by the quickness of the race: the best Lola B05/52s raced on the high 1'19" pace, the same laptimes of the Superleague races held in Zolder some weeks ago.

Rodolfo Gonzalez: "I knew that on my qualifiyng lap i did too many mistakes, and that I had the pace to win. I had only to overtake Marco at the start and I did, also thanks to his fair driving. From then on I knew I had to push in the first laps, but I didn't imagine that the fuel pump was going to scare me. But in the end everything was perfect for us".

Marco Bonanomi: "Second place is good for the championship but i'm not happy with it. We did some changes on the car but we lost mechanical grip. I hoped to clinch the fastest lap, but Gonzalez was really flying".

Ben Hanley: "A podium on the debut with a new team is good, but i hope to do better in the 2nd race. The car setup was perfect for used tires, so I was faster and faster every lap. Now we have to modify it to find some more speed with new tyres.

-credit: eu3000