Brno: Matteo Bobbi race report

A Faulty Fuel Sensor Forces Matteo Bobbi To Retire a Few km away From The Finish Line.

It seemed like Matteo Bobbi's podium win was within reach but the driver from Milan was dogged by misfortune in Brno. A few kilometres away from the finish line, Matteo's Ferrari suddenly came to a halt due to a problem with its fuel sensor. Matteo, who was in 2nd place behind Alzen, had to have the Marshalls push his car off track. The race ended there for team-mates Bobbi& Gardel.

It was a very unhappy and undeserving ending after a great pole position on Saturday and after leading the race for most of the time till the last few laps. Matteo is still 2nd in the classification but due to this retirement, there is a 9 point margin between him and the leaders.

Matteo Bobbi

"I don't usually like to complain or to blame things on misfortune but this time around, we were really unlucky. I'm very disappointed because we lost a great chance to conquer the lead in this championship.

For the whole weekend, we were the fastest on track. Regardless of our 80 kg of ballasts, we did a great job with the team to balance out the car. The results prove this: the best time during the free practice session and the pole position during the official qualifications.

The race was instead characterized by our duel with Alzen - Bartels' Saleen: a very thrilling duel it was but unfortunately, we got the short end of the stick due to technical problems. When Gabriel handed the car over to me after the second hour, I started to push the car to the maximum to catch up to the Saleen; I ran with constancy and conquered the 1st place at the 74th lap. At that time, there were 25 minutes left to reach the finish line.

I thought that I could keep my advantage over the others but I started to have a few problems. I wasn't able to defend my position but I had hoped that I could at least finish the race.

Instead, with only a few km left to reach the finish line, reality kicked in and I could believe what was happening. I have no choice but to leave this misadventure behind me and to think about the next race in Donington.

-gp group-