Louis fights back during F2 Sprint Race in Spain

Louis Delétraz put the disappointment of yesterday’s FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature Race retirement firmly behind him as he battled to within 0.6sec of a point-scoring finish during today’s Sprint Race in Spain.

The 21-year-old was on course to secure the first points of his season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Saturday when he suffered contact with a rival at Turn One. With his ADS Securities-sponsored car damaged in the incident, Louis was forced to retire early.

Starting from P20 on the grid for today’s Sprint Race, the Swiss driver was determined to fight back and he put in an impressive performance as he carved his way through the pack.

Executing a number of slick passes enabled Louis to climb to P10 and he was only 0.6sec shy of breaking into the points as he took the chequered flag.

“It was a good race with no mistakes,” he said. “You can’t really expect anything when you’re starting from P20. I did all I could and it was satisfying to show we can be quick when things aren’t out of our control. But it’s frustrating we didn’t get any points.”

Louis felt a disappointing moment during Friday’s qualifying session set the tone for his F2 weekend in Spain and ultimately made it difficult to make the impact he wanted.

“Unfortunately, I was blocked badly during one of my quick laps in quali and that’s something that can ruin your weekend. Qualifying is the number one moment,” he explained. “That meant we qualified in P12 and that’s the position on the track that’s most congested and can bring problems.”

With the next F2 event scheduled to be held on the streets of Monaco (24-26 May), Louis knows what he has to do to discover the point-scoring form that he knows is within his grasp.

The Charouz Racing System driver said: “There is some work to do before Monaco. We need to focus on putting all of the elements together during the race weekend. The speed is there and I know I can win races in this championship.”