Aragon, Spain, 26th April 2015 - Indonesia’s Sean Gelael recovered from a tough beginning to his Formula Renault 3.5 Series debut at Motorland Aragon to finish the second race with a fantastic battling drive to 16th place.
The 18-year-old Gelael was taken out by a rival at the first corner of race one, and in race two he suffered damage on the first lap of racing in wet conditions. He therefore took advantage of the fact that in race two you have a mandatory pit-stop for tyres, so at the same time he also had a new nose and front wing fitted by the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team. Sean recovered in 18th place a long way adrift of the field, but in the closing stages he stormed his way into a five-car fight for 14th place, and made up two places on the penultimate lap to claim 16th.
“The potential was so much more,” he said. “We missed one test day because I had exams at university, and I think that cost me a lot of experience, especially with the low downforce we ran in the Saturday race.”
In qualifying on Saturday morning Gelael took 14th position, feeling as though he was baulked by slower traffic on his best lap. He made a superb start to the race, but as the field funnelled into Turn 1 he was hit from behind by Roy Nissany, the Israeli climbing over the back of Sean’s car and leaving it with terminal damage.
“Nissany just T-boned me,” said Gelael. “It was so important to finish that low-downforce race because no one knew how the car would feel in that configuration over a whole race distance, with tyre degradation and so on, but I never did a lap, so that is going to cost me over the next couple of race weekends as well.”
Qualifying for Sunday’s race ended with Gelael in 14th place again, but with the field extremely tightly matched his time was just three quarters of a second from pole position, a sign of great encouragement on his competition debut in the highly powerful, 530bhp Formula Renault 3.5 cars.
“In such a competitive field that was good,” he said. “Actually, we found a small issue with my pedals, not a big problem but for sure it made some difference. Also, on my best lap I did not do my best first sector and I also made a mistake later in the lap, so the potential for a top 10 was really high. I know I can do it.”
The race started behind the safety car in very wet conditions, and as the field was led around at slow speed the rain suddenly intensified. Officials took the decision to stop the race and restart it half an hour later. Sean then made contact with Beitske Visser on the first lap. Due to the extra time lost changing the front wing in the pits, he was way behind the field, yet once he was in the rhythm again he was often one of the fastest drivers on the track.
This allowed him to catch the pack in front. On the penultimate lap Nissany spun in front of him – Gelael just avoiding him! – and then he also passed Philo Paz Armand to move up to 16th place.
“I even went off again when I came out of the pits, losing another five seconds, because I had never driven the car before in the wet and I was trying to find the limit,” said Sean. “I caught up seven seconds on the group in front, but by the end of the race my rear tyres were already finished, otherwise I am sure I could have made up more ground. It was damage limitation but a good learning process, and my move on Philo was one of my best ever – I came from way back!”
Further encouragement came with Gelael’s Jagonya Ayam with Carlin team-mate, the very experienced Tom Dillmann, taking fifth and ninth-place finishes. So everyone is looking forward to the next round, supporting the Monaco Grand Prix on 24th May.
“Monaco! F1! Glamour!” laughed Sean. “I just need to take it step by step on my first trip there, but in the meantime everything is looking good. My pace was quite strong at Motorland so we are all positive about the rest of the season.” (ms/arl)
