Monza: Addax Team weekend summary

ADDAX TEAM FINISH THE GP3 SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP WITH SUCCESS.

Addax Team finished the first GP3 Series championship on a high note, with driver Mirko Bortolotti finishing 2nd , after having finished Saturday's first race 5th , at the Autodromo Nazionale de Monza.

Mirko Bortolotti at last had the sort of weekend that does justice to the talent of the driver, and the hard work carried out by the whole team. From the beginning of the weekend he demonstrated how competitive he was, finishing the free practice session in 6th place. However, he was unable to improve on his initial times in the qualifications on the second set of tyres, although with the first set he had set the second best time early on. Despite his lowly 17th start position, Mirko drove a tremendous race picking off his rivals one by one to finish in a magnificent 5th position. He had three groups of drivers to deal with before catching up with the leading group. He was even able to improve his position on the last few laps. He really demonstrated what he is capable of, setting an impressive race rhythm. His fastest lap was just one twentieth of a second behind the fastest race lap time, set by the leader of the race. In Sunday's race he started from 4th , thanks to his sterling performance the day before. He managed to get up to second place and held on to it, despite the attacks from Muller behind without allowing the leader to escape. A truly great weekend which finished with the driver celebrating a splendid second place finish.

Felipe Guimarães: He dedicated the first free practice session getting to know the circuit and its unusual characteristics. In qualification he set the 12th fastest time, despite having to overtake another rival in the last sector. He even set the fastest time on the second sector. He started from eighth on the grid and maintained this position until coming off at the parabolic and coming back on to the track in 25th position. This didn't discourage him as he made up ground once more and climbed to 17th. Unfortunately his engine forced him to stop because it was overheating, due to the muck in the radiator picked up when he came off track. Nevertheless he showed that he had the same race rhythm as the top six drivers in the race. In Sunday's race he started from 25th and climbed his way up to 17th , his finishing position. He set the 4th fastest lap of the day, a true indication of his real potential.

Pablo Sanchez: He has made steady progress all weekend, after setting a modest 26th fastest lap time in free practice. He improved on that in qualification, where he posted the 19th best lap and finished the race 18th. In the second race he improved once more to finish the race in 12th position and not only that, but he was competing with the second group, some of whom were looking desperately to finish in the top six and get in among the points.

Addax Team finish the first GP3 Series championship satisfied with the work carried out by both team and drivers. Their main objective was to consolidate this project and create a strong school for the formation and development of up and coming young drivers. They can feel proud of their efforts and the results achieved.

-source: addax