Third Formula 4 Spanish Championship meeting took place this weekend. This time, GRS Team raced at home, in Valencia, as the championship visited Circuit Ricardo Tormo. Once again, the team shown signs of improvement and good pace, but the results were not found.
For the second consecutive round, the team shown up with two drivers. Ricardo Gracia and Vladislav Ryabov represented GRS as the team waits for Lukáš Málek’s comeback.
The performance shown at the early stages of the weekend followed the trend seen this season. The pace had improved since the previous meeting in Jerez but getting good results proved to be difficult. Vladislav finished QP1 in P16 (P18 on the grid for Race 2) while Ricardo would start 25th (23rd on Race 2). The Brazilian had a very tough weekend, where he struggled to find his pace.
Race 1 was probably the best of the season so far. The results, however, did not reflect it. A great start promoted Ryabov to the fight for our first points of the year. Unfortunately, he was forced to go off track to avoid a spun car and lost all chance. Gracia was 23rd.
Sunday started with the second qualifying session. Vladislav secured 13th on the grid for Race 3, his best qualifying results of the season. Gracia, on the other hand, qualified on 27th place. On Race 2, both drivers started at the back, and there was no option to make progress.
The final race started off well for Ryabov, who was in the fight for scoring points until one of his pushrods broke, forcing him to retire. Ricardo gained positions throughout the race in finished on 19th position.
Despite the job done by all drivers and team members, and despite the progress made this weekend, the results are still not what the team expects to achieve. We will keep working as hard as ever to reach our goals. We will never give up. The next Formula 4 Spanish Championship round will take place on July 8-9 at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps, in Belgium.
