Masters: Edoardo Mortara race report

MORTARA SHINES DESPITE ELECTRICAL FAILURE

ZANDVOORT (NED) 6 June 2010: Formula 3 Euroseries championship leader Edoardo Mortara had a strong race at the Masters of F3 Grand Prix of The Netherlands today, but ultimately finished a disappointing fifth.

With high hopes of victory heading into the weekend, Edo started seventh after suffering from qualifying traffic and an untimely red flag, but immediately showed his talent in the race with a series of thrilling overtaking maneuvers.

The Zandvoort circuit was damp at the start, which was taken under the safety car with all drivers on slicks. Edo had moved up to third place by lap ten of the 25 lap race and set his sights on the two lead ART cars of Valtteri Bottas and Alexander Sims. He was catching them by a second per lap until, ten laps from the end, Edo slowed with a battery problem. He conceded two places before crossing the finish line in fifth.

EDOARDO MORTARA: "A really unlucky weekend for me. I was unfortunate in qualifying yesterday, and today pushed really hard. It was very tricky in the wet on slicks, and because we started behind the safety car it was harder to make up places, but to pass four cars over the first ten laps was a good performance. A podium would have been great, and as I was eating a second per lap out of the leaders in the middle part of the race, perhaps I could have hoped for even more. Therefore it was really frustrating to suffer an electrical problem. But once again, Signature, Volkswagen and I showed we are an extremely competitive package."

-source: Edoardo Mortara