All three Jagonya Ayam with Carlin drivers scored points in today’s opening race at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola. Tom Blomqvist drove a faultless race to take third place at the chequered flag, Antonio Giovinazzi came home in fifth place while teenager Sean Gelael completed a strong outing for the team taking the final points paying position in tenth.
As the lights went out, both Blomqvist and Giovinazzi held onto their starting positions of third and fifth respectively, while Gelael – who had to avoid Lucas Auer quickly re-joining the track - dropped to 12th. An early safety car temporarily halted racing action to clear away an opening lap incident, and with racing neutralised the Jagonya Ayam drivers maintained position.
At the restart at the end of lap four, Blomqvist found himself briefly under attack from Felix Rosenqvist, but the Jagonya Ayam man managed to defend well, which put Rosenqvist on the back foot and into the clutches of team mate Giovinazzi behind. Despite getting close, Giovinazzi couldn’t find a way past on this notoriously difficult to overtake circuit.
With the race now into a steady rhythm once more, Gelael was on a charge, pushing hard to make it into the top 10. By lap eight, the Indonesian racer was 12th to Tatiana Calderon ahead and Esteban Fuoco. Gelael continued to make progress and by the final stages was up to 10th. At the front the order had remained the same; Blomqvist followed home Jordan King in the sister Carlin car to take third place, while Giovinazzi took fifth at the circuit which most represents a home track for the Italian racer.
Third placed man Blomqvist said after the race, “It was a good result, after the drama earlier in the week it was good to get a podium for everyone. It was a relatively straight forward race really, I came close with Jordan at the start but it wasn’t quite enough. I came under attack briefly from Felix at the restart, but after that it was just a case of managing the gaps. I couldn’t quite do anything about Esteban and Jordan, the pace was all pretty similar.”
Commenting on fifth place, Giovinazzi said, “It was a difficult start; I made a mistake, but after that the pace was quite good, but it is very hard to pass here so I just finished P5. The car was good though, which makes me confident for qualifying later and the races tomorrow.”
Speaking about his 10th place finish, Gelael added, “It was a good race, it was difficult for us in the start as I was right behind Lucas [Auer] and he went wide and then swiped straight back on track ahead of me and I had to lift to avoid him. That allowed a couple of cars to get past me which put me down to 12th I think. Then I was stuck behind van de Laar and as I was trying to overtake him we both went off which allowed Tatiana [Calderon] past me, and couldn’t quite manage to get that place back. We had good pace to catch the guys in front, but of course here you need a lot to be able to overtake. The car balance is great and the pace is good – hopefully for qualifying we can have another top ten performance.”
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