12 July 2009

Zamparelli grabs thrilling podium at Croft!

BRDC Rising Star Dino Zamparelli produced a near faultless display, starting on the grid in 6th to finish 2nd during Round Five of the Formula Renault BARC championship at Croft circuit.

Having qualified 8th for Race One and 6th for Race Two, Zamparelli seemed frustrated by the lack of speed. “Once again we were unlucky when the new tyre run in practice on Friday failed due to having a mystery deflate! This put me on the back foot for qualifying.”

“The balance of the car was all wrong, because we went straight into qualifying with no real direction. The car had a lot of understeer which completely scrubbed my speed going down the straights.”

During Round Four, Zamparelli climbed from 8th up to 6th on the first lap. However, Zamparelli struggled with pace throughout the race due to increasing understeer, which meant he found it hard to make more progress. Towards the end of the race, the understeer became too great to handle as Zamparelli understeered off the track onto the wet grass. From there Zamparelli was a passenger into the barriers. 

Reflecting on the Race One performance, Zamparelli said “The car had lost all of its front end grip for some reason. I was really struggling to keep up with the leaders - it was that bad. However, the guys have made a change on the car and I’m certain that will improve things for Race Two.”

Bristol-based Zamparelli proved to be right, as during Round Five he climbed impressively up from 6th to 2nd place.

Jumping off the line, described as his ‘best ever’ start, Zamparelli moved straight into 4th place around the outside in the first corner. Sixteen year old Zamparelli then put immediate pressure for third place and then was passed on lap 3. One lap later, Zamparelli pulled off an immaculate overtaking manoeuvre to move into 2nd place at the first corner.

An ecstatic Dino Zamparelli crossed the line in 2nd place!

“I was really on it. I was extremely annoyed by the Race One accident and I knew I had to make a lot of progress early on. I almost had two incidents on the same lap, I was pushing that hard!" said Zamparelli. Once I was into 3rd place, I was right on the tail of Mulholland. I managed to get alongside on the front straight. I then launched my car up the inside at the first corner and completely caught him out. This allowed me through into 2nd and a chance to scamper off into the distance.”

“Unfortunately the leader was, by this time, long gone into the distance and even though I was about the same pace as him, I couldn’t close the gap. However, I’ve learnt a great deal this weekend and am really happy with my Race Two performance.”

“I’m so happy to find my feet again. During the last couple of races, we’ve suffered with bad luck, suspension failures and everything else! We’ve had bad luck with not being able to test on new tyres during Friday free practice as well. But now, I think it’s all sorted out.”

“The car was perfect in Race Two and I feel more like a single-seater driver now. I had to overtake four cars to get up to 2nd place, so for me that was really good experience. We’re going to go back and do some development work on the car and tyres.”

“A big thank you to my sponsors and my team Reon/Mtech for all their hard work throughout the weekend. I am confident that next time out we can go one better and take the victory,” said Dino Zamparelli. 

Rounds 6 & 7 of the Formula Renault BARC championship will take place at Donington Park, on the 9th of August 2009.