Zanardi disappointed with Puebla results

Italian driver Alessandro Zanardi had little luck at the second round of the World Touring Car Championship 2008 in Puebla, Mexico. As one of the BMW drivers, he struggled to get his rear wheel driven car round the twisty circuit. Eventhough he started his weekend as fastest of the BMW drivers, his results were little succesfull.

“The big downside was the result, even if it was not an awful weekend performance-wise”, Zanardi said. “Until Saturday morning I was the fastest of the BMWs; in the first free practice session the car was going really well and, against any previsions, I had a race pace worth the first six positions. But then I messed around.”

“Two minutes were remaining to the end of the session and I was on a flyer, three-four tenths quicker than my best lap time. This up to the third to last corner: no need to tell fibs, I saw some sand and dirt taken on track by someone but I did not think the car would have slipped that way”, Zanardi continued.

“The dirty track primed an over-steer that made me get on the external trajectory and it was like getting on the ice. The run off was small, downhill and ended up with a straight, protection-less wall: all this transformed a trivial off track excursion into a disastrous crash. Hitting on the back, the car literally curled up and my guys performed a miracle to fix it on time for the qualifying.”

“Obviously, after using two opposed breakdown trucks to get it back open again (like an accordion!), I could not complain if it was not exactly as before, but the great misfortune was also to get a puncture in my last and decisive set of tyres, wasting that way the final attempt to obtain a good place on the grid.”

After all this bad luck, Zanardi needed a good race to get back into his strong rhythm he showed in the beginning of the weeekend. “In race one then, after a very good start, I got the usual strong blow at the first corner, don´t know from who, but I found a piece of front bumper in my rear one that my mechanics said belongs to an official Seat”, Zanardi said to the first race.

“In the second race I recovered a bit, but honestly, the Puebla´s weekend has not been an ideal one for BMWs, which have never been competitive with any of their drivers.”

“The joy remains of being far more than close to my strongest mates, I had their same race pace even with a car not in perfect conditions and I finished just a few tenths adrift Augusto Farfus, a good reference.”

The past two days, Zanardi has tested in Valencia in preparation of the next round of the championship, which will be held on the Spanish track on may 18th. On both days he drove the eleventh fastest time.