AVF and Zoel Amberg clinched an amazing second place finish in Moscow Raceway. On the track that is playing host to the fifth round of the F.Renault 3.5 championship the Swiss driver delivered a stunning performance right from the morning, when he posted the fourth quickest time in an hard-fought qualifying session, just three tenths shy of pole position. Then, in the race, he did even better: promoted to a P3 start thanks to a penalty handed to Merhi, Zoel gained a further place when fellow competitor Rowland stalled at the start. Amberg didn’t do the same mistake, as his getaway was brilliant, allowing him to follow home hero Sirotkin through the first corner. From then on, Zoel drove a very aggressive race, putting pressure on the race leader lap after lap. Slightly quicker than is rival, Amberg managed to keep the gap under the one second mark for the whole race, but due to the track’s narrow layout he didn’t get a real overtaking chance and despite his amazing charge he had to settle for P2, a placement that is his best F.Renault 3.5 result to date. On the team’s other car, Beitske Visser contributed to the team’s amazing day with a very consistent performance: 14th in qualifying, ahead of drivers with much more F.Renault 3.5 experience than her, the Dutch girl showed further progress in the race: after a good start she led a five-car pack for the whole race, ahead of Mavlanov, Sainz Jr, Sorensen, Ghiotto and Nato. She took the flag in P13, keeping momentum after the recent positive showings.
Zoel Amberg: Q1 – P4; R1 – P2
“I can’t express how happy I am today. Since the beginning of the year I’m working hard together with the team, and I am so happy that this led to my best result in F.Renault 3.5 so far. Today I felt in amazing shape, and the car was just perfect, quick and consistent. My start was good, I steered left just a bit to cover for a possible move by Fantin but he was far enough not to worry about him even on lap 1. From then on I just tried to remain as closed to Sirotkin as possible, studying his lines and how he was using DRS to find the best place to try and pass him. I managed to get as close as 0.5 but this track doesn’t offer any real overtaking spot, so I just sticked the nose of my car to his rear wing, and we crossed the like that. I loved the podium and the champagne, I hope I’ll get more tomorrow!”.
Beitske Visser: Q1 – P14; R1 – P13
“My start was quite ok, and in the first few laps I felt really at ease with the car. I pushed hard to chase Buller and put some pressure on him, but in doing that I overcooked my tyres a bit, and that made the rest of my race a bit more difficult. I still had some fun in leading a tight-packed group, and P13 is a good result, that confirms that I’m still making progress”.