Alex MacDowall scores first blood at Monza

Bamboo Engineering driver Alex MacDowall took the first independents’ class pole and race victory at Monza, but a puncture in race two scuppered his chance of leaving with the points lead heading to the next round in Morocco.

The 22-year-old put the Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T third on the grid, his highest overall qualifying result to date for the first race behind the two RML-run Chevrolets, and held station in the wet conditions to claim the final spot on the podium.

“It’s great to have taken an indie win on the first weekend of the season, good for the team, but my focus is on the main championship so third on the overall podium is the most important result”, said MacDowall. “Most of the cars around me are fighting for the main title so that’s what I’m aiming for too this year.”

Inn the second race MacDowall started from seventh on the reversed grid race, but fell back in the early running. As he worked his way back into the top ten, he was hit by Tom Coronel’s BMW and then was forced to retire with a puncture. As a result, MacDowall leaves Monza in second place in the Yokohama Independents’ Trophy, just four points behind team-mate James Nash and joint-fourth in the overall standings behind Yvan Muller, Tom Chilton and Gabriele Tarquini.

“It’s a shame we’re not leading it but we showed we had the pace here all weekend, and it’s the outright speed that’s really hard to find. You need consistency to win a championship, but that’s easier to find than those last few tenths of a second to be up there with the fastest guys every weekend.”