Michela Cerruti scored an outstanding maiden Auto GP win at Imola in the fifth round of the 2014 season. The 27-year-old female racer from Milan overcame some early issues to end the weekend in spectacular fashion with her Super Nova prepared car. And all at same track where she had taken a solitary win in the Italian GT Championship last season. Whether it was fate of a particular feeling between Michela and the spectacular Imola circuit, the performance level showed on-track left no doubts and put her on the top of the podium in Race 2.
In Qualifying, Michela suffered from some downshifting issues that limited her to 4th place on the grid in Race 1. After the inconvenience got resolved, she quickly caught up to her rivals, recovering 12 seconds on the leader but lost the chance to fight for the podium at the pit-stop. Last but not least, some power issues cost Michela two more spots and forced her to settle for 5th.
In Race 2, Michela was starting from the second row due to the reversed top-8 grid format, and quickly went around slow-starting Christof von Grunigen. On the third lap, Miki passed her team-mate Francesco Dracone before inheriting the lead thanks to a spin by Giuseppe Cipriani. Then she never looked back becoming the first woman to win an international open-wheel race since 2008, when Danica Patrick won in IndyCar at Motegi
Michela Cerruti
“I’m absolutely on cloud nine. I don’t think there are words to describe how I feel now! I really want to thank the team because they did an outstanding job at the pit-stop, the car was perfect and everything went well on-track. Keeping Kevin Giovesi at bay for the whole race hasn’t been easy but I did it and now I won my first open-wheel race! Also, I’m able to celebrate on the same track where I won last season in Grand Touring competition, so I have another beautiful trophy… Celebrating today’s result with my team, my family and my friends is so exciting. I want to thank everybody who supported me along the way and I hope we will be celebrating for more wins soon!”
