The Home of British Motorracing showed its nasty side to the Zele Racing Renaults
Following good and intensive summer testing hopes were high amongst the Zele duos that they could continue in Silverstone where they had left off in Hungary. At the Budapest weekend, Vittorio Ghirelli had scored the team’s first podium finish in the Renault Sport Trophy.
However, the British event turned out to be a weekend to forget for the Austrian outfit in its inaugural sportscar season.
In the opening stages of Saturday’s Endurance race Philippe Bourgois had a big off, which left Vittorio Ghirelli sidelined. Bas Schothorst and Andres Mendez had a decent run taking the 11 car to P6.
On Sunday, Ghirelli enjoyed a very good start, rocketing from P9 to P5, but lots of wheelbanging caused damage on his car and sent the engine cover flying high in the air. The brought the car home on P9, but he would have been able to battle for the podium without the incident. Schothorst showed another subtle drive to finish the Elite race on P6.
„Silverstone was certainly not, what we had hoped for, but Vittorio (Ghirelli) is still P4 in the overall standings and we will fight back with force next weekend at the Nürburgring“, team boss Michael Zele said.
