Points finish in Monte Carlo for Sainz and Zeta Corse

On the most prestigious circuit in the World, Monaco, Zeta Corse made their return into the points. Carlos Sainz, who was making his debut both in the Principality and the F.Renault 3.5 championship, took a very good 6th place, so far the season’s best result for the Italian outfit.

Carlos Sainz

Photo by: GP3 Media Service

After getting acquainted with the different brake feeling, Carlos found his pace again and was quick enough to keep the competition at bay and take the flag in P6.

Nick Yelloly drove a flawless race too but his unlucky qualifying session meant starting from Row 7, hence having to struggle with the mid-field traffic and closing in P14 despite a very good pace. Now F.Renault 3.5 is ready to get back on track in just one week time, in SpaFrancorchamps, for the fourth round of the season.

Claudio Corradini (Team manager): “If I somebody had come to me before the race weekend, telling me that we were gonna qualify in 5th place and finish in P6 in Monaco with a rookie driver, even if a talented one, I would have thought he was crazy. Now, on the contrary, I’m even a bit disappointed because I know that without a little mistake in qualifying and a brake issue today, a podium finish would have been in our reach with Sainz and a very good result would have been possible with Yelloly too, as he was again very quick.

Anyway, we can really be satisfied with what we achieved, and we are ready to confirm our potential in Spa”.

Carlos Sainz – P6 “I have a bittersweet feeling now, because even if I know that sixth place is a very good result for a driver that had never taken part in a FR3.5 race before, and had never raced in Monaco either, I also know that P4 would have been well in my reach without the brake issue I had today.

Unluckily, the brake pedal travel just got longer around lap ten, and that caught me by surprise in the Rascasse corner, forcing me to leave room for Magnussen. Then the antistall kicked in, and Da Costa went past too. It’s a pity, but looking at the bigger picture I think that we did met our objectives, even going beyond any expectation. So, I think that we can be happy with what we did”.

Nick Yelloly – P14 “I had a really good start making up three places to P11, but then at S.te Devote somebody closed the door and I had to slow down, falling back again. From then on I just cared about bringing the car home with no damage and no mistakes, but it was a pity because the car was really quick, as it had already been in Free Practice.

It’s a pity that we lost our pace a bit in qualifying, our weekend could have been very different without that”.

Zeta Corse