Racing Engineering Magny Cours race summary

Franck Montagny back on track!

Round five of the World Series by Nissan taking place this weekend in Magny Cours saw Franck Montagny and Zonta as winners. In the first race Franck Montagny finished in third position followed by Justin Wilson in fourth position. In the second race Franck won because of a perfect pit stop from his mechanics allowing him to get ahead of Zonta. Justin finished the second race in fifth.

1st race:
The first race taking place this Saturday saw Justin Wilson starting from third and Franck Montagny from sixth position on the grid. Franck made an amazing start that allowed him to get into third position. He held his third position throughout the whole race. Justin Wilson who started in third position fell back to fifth after the start, but immediately made his way up into fourth again. Justin was pushing hard during the rest of the race, trying to overtake Franck, who was battling with Justin to stay on the podium.

2nd race:
Franck Montagny started the second race from third position. Justin Wilson, after a wonderful qualifying on Friday, started from pole position. Franck one more time had a very good start and was immediately behind Ricardo Zonta. Franck could keep the gap between him and Zonta very close and when he entered the pits in lap 16 together with Zonta leading, everyone knew that it would be the pit stop that would decide the race. Racing Engineering's mechanics made a professional pit stop and therefore Franck could get out on the track again ahead of Zonta. Franck won the second race ahead of Zonta and Garcia. Justin Wilson after not having a very good start went off the track in the second chicane, but could stay in the race. After his pit stop in lap 14, Justin came back into the race in ninth position. He had some very good overtaking maneuvers and interesting fights on the track and finished in fifth position.

Franck after this weekend asked about his chances in the championship announced that nothing is done yet."There are still 4 meetings and I am taking each race at a time. I am sorry we didn't have a better qualifying but we had problems during Friday's qualifying sessions. We did very good work last week during the collective test days. And with the problems we had yesterday, we lost the whole day. I would like to say thank you to the team for the pit stop, as this allowed me to win, it was not only the car." Asked about him being afraid of Zonta during the race Franck stated"I had a good practice during the first race with Justin Wilson behind me".

Justin Wilson after the second race said"In the second race I didn't have a very good start and a lot of wheel spin. I was passed by Ricardo and Franck and was side by side with Bas all the way to the first corner, but I was on the inside so I could keep my position. In the second chicane I slid out wide into the grass and missed the next corner. I overtook several drivers and had fun battling with Couto. In the first race, I had a good battle with Franck as well and tried several times to overtake him, but he closed the door. In general I think we are on the pace, and we should get a good result soon. My car was fine on Friday and more or less the same on Saturday, but there were no cars ahead of me and when you lose the down force, you can't do anything.

-re-