Hungaroring, 15^th June 2015 - Indonesia’s Sean Gelael was out of luck in the fourth race weekend of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, after points had looked very much on the cards in both races.

Unfortunately for Gelael, damage to his car caused a spin out of ninth place in the first race, while a great qualifying effort for race two was in vain as a handling imbalance caused another spin, putting him out of the race.

Everything looked promising from the start of the weekend, with Sean setting the ninth fastest time in his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin car in free practice on Friday. But in Saturday morning’s qualifying session things didn’t go quite right, and he would start 15^th on the grid for race one.

He soon rectified this with a scorching getaway, 18-year-old Gelael taking to the grass to get around Beitske Visser – who started on the row in front – and launching himself into a fantastic ninth position on the opening lap.

Sean was settling into the race and holding off Brazilian Pietro Fantin – the most experienced driver in the field – when damage to the front trackrod sustained on the opening lap, when he was battling his way up the order, caused a spin.

Now Gelael was down in 19^th and last, but he fought his way up to 15^th, on a circuit where it is notoriously difficult to overtake. Sean had adjusted his driving to cope with the damaged steering caused by the trackrod issue, and set lap times comfortably faster than the gaggle of cars in front, all the way up to Visser, who finished ninth.

“Should have, would have, could have,” said Sean, who knew that without the incident points would easily have been his. “At least I proved there was plenty of grip on the grass at the start! But it was a real disappointment in the end, especially as I knew we had the pace.”

Gelael confirmed this in second qualifying, taking his best Formula Renault 3.5 grid position yet with 11^th. Had he put all his best sector times together on the same lap, he would have started from seventh on the grid.

Once again he made a great start, but in the first-lap battling he was edged wide at Turn 2, dropping him to 13^th. The second race of the weekend features mandatory pit stops, so the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team called Sean in early to try to put him into clear space to leapfrog some cars in front. Indeed, straight out of the pits his lap times were good, but after only a few laps a mysterious oversteer problem manifested itself, causing Gelael to spin out.

The oversteer would normally indicate that the rear tyres were losing grip, but these had been changed in the pit stop and were still quite fresh, so the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin guys were investigating the car after the race to try to find the source of the problem.

“We made really good progress in second qualifying, so that is good encouragement to take forward to the rest of the season,” said Sean. “It was a shame I was pushed wide on lap one, and the call for an early stop was exactly the right one, but within a few laps the oversteer was unreal. OK, another disappointing result, but we know that if we get everything right the results can come.”

Gelael will, however, have to wait. After the early-season batch of races, there is now almost a month before the next round, at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on 10^th-12^th July. (ms/arl)