Round 2 of Formula 4 Spanish Championship, held in Navarra Circuit alongside Racing Weekend, did not provide GRS with the results the team expected. The great job made by the team was not rewarded with points after being involved in incidents in all three races.
There were two days of collective testing before the event officially began. Vladislav Ryabov, however, did only test on Friday and had to miss the first day due to school duties. He hit the track on the last day and finished third, showing a competitive pace that would last throughout the entire weekend.
Official sessions got underway and, after two positive free practice sessions, Ryabov qualified in tenth place for Races 1 and 2. In the first one, the young driver fought for the points until the end, but an accident on the last lap forced him to retire.
Sunday came and Ryabov had a stellar performance in the second qualifying session after finishing in sixth position, where he would start Race 3 from and with pace to fight at the top positions. Unluckily, the stewards penalised him with places on the grid for Race 2 because of the incident he had on Saturday.
The Russian driver started the second race from fifteenth. A crash ahead of him caused several retirements and Ryabov could not avoid being involved. The team replaced his front wing so the driver could go on and finish the race. The car, however, had further damage and Ryabov was unable to gain positions.
The team gave his best to have the car completely repaired for the last race. Once again, Ryabov fought for points, but had the same outcome as Race 1, having to retire at the final stages of the race.
GRS leaves Navarra with no points. It was not the result the team expected, but we hold on to the positive feeling, looking to improve the situation during the next rounds. The driver had the potential to be consistently fighting for points and top positions, while all engineers and mechanics at the team, and the coach as well, worked, like in every race, showing an outstanding professionality and effort.
“Definitely not our weekend. I Had absolutely no luck and suffered from a lack of experience. There is no doubt that pace was phenomenally outstanding for a second weekend in Formula 4, but we did not get the result we deserve in any of the races. We will come back stronger in Portimao! That track suits me well and we will show a decent result there”.
Vladislav Ryabov, driver #26
Formula 4 Spanish Championship takes another break and will return in July 16-18 for the third round of the season, which will also be the second and last one held out of Spain. Algarve International Autodrom will host the third event, where we will arrive highly motivated and determined to keep doing our best to improve what we have done so far.
