Tatiana Calderón is aiming to put a difficult second round of the GP3 Series behind her as she returns to action this weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
The Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula 1 test driver was left empty-handed at Paul Ricard last weekend, her strong pace going unrewarded as she was caught up in on-track incidents in both races over the course of the weekend.
Tatiana was running strongly just outside the points-paying positions in Saturday’s opening race at the French Grand Prix venue when she was the victim of an overambitious lunge by her Jenzer Motorsport teammate Juan Manuel Correa at the Mistral Chicane.
That dropped the Colombian driver down to the rear of the field and compromised her starting position for Sunday’s second race.
Despite that setback, Tatiana made impressive progress up the field until she was again involved in an incident not of her making, this time with the MP Motorsport car of Niko Kari, that forced her to pit for a new nose and meant another disappointing result.
Tatiana proved her speed with the seventh-fastest lap in the second race, and is now determined to get her first points of the season when she takes to the track again this weekend in Austria – at a track where she has enjoyed success in the past.
Tatiana Calderón: “It was a bit of a disappointing weekend in terms of results, but we got some pace back after qualifying. I was frustrated to only start 13th, but my pace in the first race was pretty strong. I felt I could catch the ART guys could fight for points before I was hit by my teammate, which I couldn’t really do anything to avoid. That meant we had to start from the back in Race 2, and again I had really good pace until I had to pit to change my front wing. I’m pretty happy with the car and the way the team is working; we found a good direction to go in Austria. Hopefully there we can attack qualifying because it’s a key area to start getting the results we want and that we are capable of achieving.”
RED BULL RING TIMETABLE (times CET and subject to change)
Friday 29 June Practice – 0935 Qualifying – 1745 Saturday 30 June Race 1 – 1025 Sunday 1 July Race 2 – 0945
Comments