Michela Cerruti ended her trip to the Nürburgring, for the penultimate round of the 2014 Auto GP series, with a double point finish. The 27-year-old female racer, who captured her first career win at Imola before rebounding to a podium finish in Austria, paid the price of two pit-stop issues. All of that after having matched her previous best qualifying effort of the season in fourth.
In Race 1, Michela was off to a good start, holding fourth place. Then, when she was fighting her way up, she was assessed a drive-through penalty for not respecting the yellow flags following a first-lap off. The same infraction cost penalties to all the other drivers, although a problem at the pit-stop lost Miki more time forcing her to content with 6th.
In Race 2, Michela scored more points with a fifth-place finish. After having ended her first stint in third, the Super Nova racer suffered from another wheel fixing issue and rounded out the top-5.
Michela will be back on-track at the Nürburgring from the 19th to the 21st of September to contest the final round of the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series. But before that more “traditional” commitment, she will be starting her exciting endeavour in the brand-new Formula E championship, on the 13th of September in Beijing.
Michela Cerruti
“All in all, although it wasn’t a bad weekend, we could have get much better results considering our pace. In qualifying, I repeated my personal best in 4th, although there was some luck involved with the weather. Unfortunately then both races were conditioned by pit-stop problems that cost me valuable positions. In Race 1, the drive-through penalties created some confusion, although we were all penalized, and I took 6th place.
“In Race 2 the pace was there in the first stint. We agreed with the team to go for a late pit-stop to minimize the issue of having softer tires on only one axle, but I was called earlier and, once again, there was a wheel fitting issue. Anyway, we’ll try to be back stronger, and I also want to congratulate Kimiya Sato for winning the 2014 title“.
