Masters: Edoardo Mortara qualifying report

MORTARA SUFFERS IN MASTERS QUALIFYING

ZANDVOORT (NED) 5 June 2010: Formula 3 Euroseries championship leader Edoardo Mortara endured a frustrating qualifying session today ahead of the annual Masters of F3 race at Zandvoort, on the Netherlands' North Sea coast. Baulked by traffic and then cut short by red flags, he will start tomorrow's race from seventh on the grid.

Edo performed well in the morning session, registering the second fastest time in Free Practice 1 and the quickest time in Free Practice 2. In the first qualifying session he was third fastest, but in the final qualifying was slowed by traffic and, on his quickest lap, the session was suspended due to an accident involving his Signature team mate Marco Whittmann

EDOARDO MORTARA: "This was one of the most unlucky qualifying sessions ever for me. The day was going well in practice. In FP1 I had lots of fuel, so P2 was respectable. In FP2 I was fastest. And then in the first qualifying session I was third despite using worn tyres, which we did in an effort to find the best set-up for the race.

"For second qualifying we have a procedure that sees me warm up the tyres over two laps and then push on lap 3. Unfortunately, someone went off in front of me on this lap and the yellow flags were out.

"On lap 4 I was on course for pole position before the red flags were waved. After that, at the restart, I had only one lap which I could do nothing with. So I was screwed.

"I expected to fight for pole today, so this is a disappointing situation we find ourselves in. It's very difficult to over take at Zandvoort. There are a lot of fast corners, and each straight has a fast turn before it, so if you try to get close to someone to overtake, you'll lose downforce and be forced to back off.

"There are a couple of rookies ahead of me, so I hope I can beat them off the line. Turn 1 is going to be very important.

"This race doesn't count towards the Euroseries championship, thankfully. Therefore I have nothing to lose. If I finish fifth, I might as well finish last. So I'm going kamikaze! That's my strategy."

-source: Edoardo Mortara PR