Photo: ACI Sport

Eric Scalvini rues missed opportunity at Monza

Eric Scalvini’s second place at Monza meant he was able to limit the damages in the championship standings, as title rival Nicola Baldan won with a relatively tight margin over the Honda driver. A power steering problem in his outlap meant he had to hurry to the grid, where MM Motorsport solved the issue. The lack of warm up laps meant Scalvini’s tyres were too cold to start pushing in the first two laps.

“Straight out of the pits I had a power steering issue”, explained the Honda driver to TouringCarTimes. “Thankfully the crew managed to fix it on the grid, but I had to rush to the grid to allow them to work, so I couldn’t warm the tyres up as I would have wanted to. As a result I wasn’t able to attack the way I would have wanted in the first couple of laps, which is when Nicola (Baldan) opened up a gap.”

Despite the setback, Scalvini is happy he had pace in his car and looks forward to Mugello, where his rival will have to carry a 30-kg success ballast.

“The pace was consistent and quite similar to that of Nicola’s, which means the car is good and that makes me happy. With the results in Monza I should be a bit lighter at Mugello, which is very positive also considering Baldan will have to carry 30 kilos.”

The Lombardy-based driver acknowledges he will have to fight against the other front runners at Mugello, especially considering Audi’s Max Mugelli will be at his home track.

“At Mugello I will try to make full use of that weight differential, so I think we will be more balanced in Tuscany. It will be a tough fight, especially because I expect the Audis to be strong. I’m still going to look ahead and try to do my best as usual.”