FIA F2

Monza: Andreas Zuber weekend summary

Andreas Zuber looks forward to Portimao after Monza races Monza, Sunday, September 13, 2009 - This weekend in Monza is one of the biggest career challenges for Dubai resident Andreas Zuber who races under a UAE licence with FMSI as he returns ...

Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:12 PM

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Andreas Zuber looks forward to Portimao after Monza races

Monza, Sunday, September 13, 2009 - This weekend in Monza is one of the biggest career challenges for Dubai resident Andreas Zuber who races under a UAE licence with FMSI as he returns to racing action after the Spa weekend. Andreas Zuber would have become the most experienced GP2 driver in history at Spa, but because his team missed the weekend, Zuber has been passed by Javier Villa on the all-time list. Zuber made his debut at the beginning of

2006 (Valencia, the same weekend as Villa) and had not until last weekend missed a race since then,.

Andreas was hoping for points at Monza even if he had only scored two points at Monza in six previous starts here. Andreas qualified ninth before a race 1 start delayed by thirty minutes because of stormy conditions. He then suffering from an engine misfire, nevertheless, Andreas's race was helped by a tremendous early stop strategy from the team that allowed him to bring his car to a good 12th place finishing position. Next morning the sun was back over Monza. Andreas did not finish race 2 after going wide at Ascari.

Zuber commented, "At the start of the second race, our cars were again two laps behind the safety car after one lap following a first lap accident involving Nunes, Clos and Perez and that changed my race."

"I arrived at Monza motivated to make up for last week's race in Spa and hoping for a better outcome than in Belgium. I am pleased to have finished this race in 12th position. My engine was completely soaked with water at the start and nothing responded until the six or seventh lap before the end when it dried!" said Zuber.

He added, "When I arrived at Monza I could not find my helmet nor my visors as a number of our personal items had been stolen from the truck when it was impounded. Luckily Bell was able to send a helmet right away and it remained black and unpainted which made me feel sorry for my sponsors. I finished the qualifying in ninth position with a lap of 1.30.803. This is a good position for points in the race if all goes well at the start. But the very heavy rain compromised the start of course. Not only was my engine completely soaked with water, but the electronics suffered heavily as the race start was delayed 30 minutes and we remained behind the safety car for six laps. When the race started on the track behind the safety car, it was still very wet and visibility was very poor. The conditions were difficult for the eight first laps then the track half dried. My engine was suffering from a misfire due to all the water in the system. My team did a super job in terms of strategy. I had an early pit stop on lap 7 and rejoined in 19th position. The team strategy was absolutely perfect. At midrace, it was still incredibly difficult to maintain the car on the track and impossible to progress nor take over. Only towards the end of the race the car felt better. But it was a bit too late. Between penalties and accidents, I finished 12th. In race two I had a good start and from 12th was already 10th as the safety car came out. This stopped our efforts and we could only watch the tyre temperatures for a couple of laps. At the restart everything went ok. But I went wide into Ascari and the front wing from my car was half gone. I had to go back to the pits and we decided not to change the damaged nose to avoid more trouble. I watched my young team-mate Luiz Razia win his first race that he was leading from start to finish keeping Huelkenberg and di Grassi behind him. Well done Luiz! And well done also to Nico Huelkenberg who today becomes 2009 champion of the series Again I have to wait to score six more points to reach 100 in my career and that is my goal for our final race in Portimao 19-20 September in Portugal."

-credit: az

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