Felix stormed to a dominant victory in the first FA1 race of the weekend at Monza, giving Team Sweden its maiden win in the new-for-2014 championship as he led his rivals across the line by more than 11 seconds.
Felix made a poor start from pole position, initially dropping back to third on the opening lap – but what followed next was a display of superiority around the Italian Grand Prix venue. Within the space of two laps, Felix shot past Sergio Campana and Nigel Melker to re-claim a lead he would never again surrender.
The Team Sweden mechanics, on their hand, executed a solid and efficient pit stop – mandatory in FA1 – allowing Felix to maintain his advantage and take the chequered flag in unchallenged fashion. To underline his dominant effort, Felix also set the fastest lap of the race, recording a time a full seven tenths quicker than second-placed Nigel Melker could accomplish.
In tomorrow’s Race 2, Felix will start from fourth on the grid following a what-could-have-been second qualifying session this morning. Having looked set to follow up his Friday pole effort with yet another P1 result, a mistake at the Parabolica forced him to abort an effort that until then had seen him go comfortably fastest through the second sector, leaving him on the second row of the grid with a lap set on his first set of tyres.
FELIX:
“It’s absolutely great to have won an FA1 race with Team Sweden – I’m thrilled! Winning was what we set out to do this weekend, and now we’ve achieved it. The car feels phenomenal here, and driving is actually pretty easy. I made a bad start and dropped back to third, but I knew we had the pace to fight back and that our time would come. A few laps in, I found a quick line through the Parabolica and managed to overtake first Sergio, and then Nigel, under braking for the first chicane. From there, it was all just about building a gap and keep up the pace. The team did a great job in the pits and they really deserve this success. Now, we need to try and repeat this tomorrow and bring the weekend to a perfect end.”
RESULTS
