Europe: John-Eric recovers from the back of the field to score the last point at Valencia

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Faster Than Speed endured a tough afternoon at Valencia as John-Eric Saxen was an unfortunate victim of a first-lap incident. His strong Qualifying effort became undone as he went from 5th to 19th on the opening lap.

Driving a solid race, John-Eric recovered to rescue the last point in 10th place. Giuseppe Marconi finished 13th.

In the World Championship, John-Eric Saxen drove a strong Q1 lap to secure a spot in the top-ten Qualifying shootout by setting the 5th quickest time. In Q2, a solid tidy lap, even if not perfect, left John-Eric 5th on the grid, despite some conservative race-oriented setup choices. Team-mate Giuseppe Marconi qualified in 18th place.

On the opening lap, drama would happen for John-Eric. Varga missed his braking point in Turn 3 and rear-ended Masciulli, creating a chain colission which also collected the cars of Mallorqui and John-Eric, who was left facing the opposite direction. While John-Eric's FTS-P12 only suffered minor damage, he suddenly found himself with a mountain to climb as he lost 14 positions in the incident, running as low as 19th before ending the first lap in 18th place.

Stuck in traffic, John-Eric switched from the planned 4-stops strategy to a 5-stopper. The strategy would work but only partially, with John-Eric being the fastest man on track for fractions of the race but also spending other moments stuck behind slower drivers. Before his fourth pitstop, John-Eric had a great battle with Varga. He was unable to find his way through until pulling off an incredibly oportunistic manouvre as they both dived into the pitlane. Varga repassed the following lap, but John-Eric ended the duel with a millimetric outside move into Turn 1.

John-Eric drove a quick and smart race to recover from the back of the field and rescue the last point by finishing in 10th place. He put pressure on Parisis in the closing laps but the checkered flag came slightly too early, with the Greek driver ending the race just 0.7s ahead of the Finn. While the team was left wondering what could have been without the start incident, as John-Eric showed he had the pace to fight for a top-4 position, it is still very positive to take points home when things go wrong.

Giuseppe, meanwhile, had a difficult race, unable to lap at his testing pace. The only man in the field to deploy a 3-stopper strategy, Giuseppe ran as high as 10th before his first pitstop. While unable to make a push into the point-scoring positions, Giuseppe reached the finish line in 13th place.

John-Eric Saxen (10th): "This was one of the most difficult races I can remember. I had a decent Qualifying, a couple of small mistakes cost 2 positions which meant I started 5th.
In the first corner, I chose the outside line, which cost me one position. A turn later Peter Varga forgot to brake in time, which took out myself and 3 other cars. On the same lap I had a couple of other scary moments, which all damaged my car somewhat. From there on, I had to recover from the back of the grid, which my setup wasn't made for at all, as the maximum downforce configuration meant I had no top speed.
I consequently decided to pit once more than the drivers around me in order to pass them that way. I was not as lucky as in the last round with this strategy as I caught several slower drivers. Before my second last stop, I caught Varga and had no opportunity to pass him, until he decided to pit same lap as me, allowing me to overtake him on the pit entry. A lap later he repassed me, but I was able to retake the place with a somewhat lucky move into Turn 1.
I hope Spa will bring a normal race without incidents, as I felt I had the pace to fight for fourth place, but this race provided nothing more than an exercise in slipstream driving."


Giuseppe Marconi (13th): "Not much to say. I didn't have the testing pace and also, the track changes didn't help me find a good speed. See you at Spa."

Faster Than Speed will have revenge as soon as next weekend, as FSR moves to the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit for a back-to-back event. In the Belgian GP, which will host round 9 of the 2012 season, FTS scored a podium with Patrick De Wit in 2007. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@FTS_Racing) and Google+ for the latest news and live coverage from Belgium!

Faster Than Speed
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