WS Renault - Estoril

Marco Bonanomi settles for 5th place

Marco Bonanomi left Estoril with bitter feelings despite the 5th place finish scored in the penul- timate round of the World Series Renault. The Italian, driving for Comtec Racing, had a fine start in qualifying by making it to the Superpole session. The result was extremely positive for Marco, who won a day-long duel with series' leader Giedo Van Der Garde that left the Dutchman out of the decisive segment. Bonanomi then clinched 8th place and, thanks to the reversed top- 8 at the start of Race 1, took off from the pole spot. Unfortunately, less than 100 meters after the start, Martinez crashed in the back of the Italian, who collected Bertrand Baguette in the process and was forced to retire immediately. Back on-track for Race 2 after seeing an almost safe podium finish vanish due to someone else's mistake, Marco made a great start, moving to third place and staying there until the mandatory pit-stop. At that point, due to a slow change and to an irregular tire wear, he just couldn't match his early pace, having to content himself with the 5th spot.

Marco Bonanomi

"Fifth place isn't something to trash away, but I'm a little disappointed for how we ended up after such a convincing start. A podium spot could have definitely been in our frame on both days. On Race 1, I was hit with no apparent reason by Martinez, while on Race 2 my car pro- gressively lost grip, forcing me to lose a couple of spots and settle for 5th. That really wasn't the final I imagined after moving from 8th to 3rd at lap 1."

-credit: mb