UGOCHUKWU CHASING POINTS IN RAINY ZANDVOORT
The past weekend, the 33 drivers of the Formula Regional Championship by Alpine were guests of the famous Zandvoort circuit, home of the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix. The third round of the Championship started in very unusual conditions for summer race, with an average temperature of 15 degrees Celsius around the track at the starting point of the collective testing session.
17-year-old Ugo Ugochukwu took on the collective testing session on Friday head forward, determined to make the best out of a very challenging session, which would help him get used to the wet conditions for the upcoming races. Despite landing in the midfield, the young driver in the now fully McLaren papaya livered car, aimed at taking away as much as possible from the first session of the weekend.
On Saturday, Ugochukwu joined other 14 drivers on track for Qualifying 1, as the grid was split between group A and B. In warmer conditions than the previous day, the young PREMA Driver proved he was one of the driver to look out from, as he took home the third fastest time of the session. Unfortunately, as he was recording his fastest lap of the session, the he was caught by surprise by a wet spot on track and spinned into the gravel, losing the chance to further improve his times.
With a P6 start on the grid for Race 1, the 2023 Euro 4 Champion went out in full speed and was determined to make the best out of the very challenging conditions on track, with rain making it extremely hard to get the tyres up to the optimal temperature. Unfortunately the young talent of the Papaya Team found himself turned backwards on track, as he was trying to overtake within the very busy field of cars running on low grip. Finding himself at the back of the pack, Ugo took on the strenuous mission of making up places in a precarious situation, unfortunately without the desired results.
Committed to turning his weekend upside down, he then took on the second qualifying session on Sunday morning, the New Yorker went out in full speed and had already managed to get a fourth fastest time of the day. As he was chasing down the fastest lap of the session, unfortunately another driver slipped and ended his flying lap in the barriers, causing a red flag, which then led to all running laps to be deleted.
Starting the second race of the weekend in P8, Ugo was caught within a group of drivers pushing to reach the top 5 spots from the beginning, and proceeded carefully to get through the infamous chaos of Lap 1 safely. He then immediately switched back into action mode and committed to his ultimate goal of gaining positions in the field, but with some hard charging drivers just behind him, he was forced to take defensive measures since the beginning. The variable weather forecast did not make the 17-year-old’s mission any easier, as the lack of grip came to be a permanent issue during the whole length of the race.
Ugochukwu eventually ended his weekend with a P10 in Race 2, leaving him satisfied of a solid effort done despite the adverse conditions but wanting for more from the next round, hosted at the Hungaroring between the 21st -23rd of June.
Stay tuned for more action, and check out last weekends highlights on the FRECA Championship’s channel.
