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Race report

Good mileage for Tuscher, K.O. for Marinescu at Motorland Aragon

The team staff are now focused on tomorrow's sessions, confident that they have the potential for a much better result.

Matheo Tuscher

Matheo Tuscher

Renault Sport

The first race of the F.Renault 3.5 weekend in Alcaniz wasn't particularly good for Zeta Corse. Matheo Tuscher took the flag in 22nd place, while Mihai Marinescu had to retire due to heavy vibrations after flat-spotting a tyre under braking.

Matheo Tuscher
Matheo Tuscher

Photo by: Renault Sport

The Swiss youngster, who is making his debut in the series in Alcaniz, was starting from P22 after his performance in the morning qualifying, a session that was made especially tricky by both rain and very low temperatures, features that turned a normal task like warming the tyres into a real challenge.

Then in the race, held under dry conditions, Tuscher had climbed up to 19th place, but he had to ease his pace due to a slight oversteer that emerged when tyres started to wear.

Still, he fulfilled his primary objective, putting the full race mileage under his belt in order to gain more confidence with the Renault-engined Dallara. Marinescu, who had qualified his car in 24th place in the morning, made up a couple of places at the start and was fighting to get past the backmarkers when he damaged his tyre under braking.

The team staff are now focused on tomorrow's sessions, confident that they have the potential for a much better result.

Claudio Corradini (Team Manager): "It was a difficult day right from Qualifying: we mounted new rain tyres a bit early in the session and so we got at their peak performance when the track wasn't at its best. This meant that we had to start from behind and that never makes things easy.

Despite that both Mihai and Matheo had a good start and were looking good in the first part of the race. Unluckily, Marinescu flat-spotted a tyre under braking and vibrations got so bad that he was forced to stop, while Tuscher was hampered by oversteer late into the race. Anyway as a rookie his primary aim was to finish the race to put miles under his belt, and he accomplished that".

Mihai Marinescu (Q1 - P24; R1 - DNF): "The first part of the race was good, I gained some ground at the start and from P24 I managed to climb up to P21 before having that issue with the tyre. I wanted to carry on despite that but the vibrations got worse after each lap and eventually I had to stop. We still have another Qualifying and a Race tomorrow, I hope in a change of luck".

Matheo Tuscher (Q1 - P22; R1 - P22): "I'm quite ok with how things went today. I'm an absolute rookie on this car so I'm still getting acquainted with it and its amazing level of downforce. I felt confident enough to push at the beginning of the race and that allowed me to gain 3 places up to P19, but then tyre wear became a factor and I started struggling because of oversteer. Anyway I got to the finish, and that was the most important thing to achieve today".

Zeta Corse

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