A Finnish Champion ship pre race took place last weekend at Botniaring race track. There was no points to be collected, but the race was driven according to the Championship series rules. Milla Mäkelä participated to get a good full race simulation before the series starts. The goal was reached perfectly.
- After a couple of days of testing we knew we were strong. The car was in perfect balance and we were fast. The only thing that went a bit wrong was the fastest lap of my Qualy. I had to lift off slightly when overtaking on the lap. Due to that in the tight qualy I got P3 on grid.
In the first race the start was good and Milla was second after the first corner. Team mate Jonne Rautjärvi took the lead. They had agreed to drive clean the first few laps to gain advantage to others, but unfortunately Jonne had to retire on the first lap due to a broken throttle wire. This gave the lead spot to Milla and she held on to it all the way through the race. On the finish line she had a 16 second gap to P2.
Milla also made the fastest lap in R1, so she started on pole for R2. She was first after the first corner and stayed there, though this time Philip Miemois was right on her tail. Mid way through the race Milla had problems with her brakes. The front end locked up badly. Philip got a free pass and the repeated lockings of front brakes gave him a few seconds gap to Milla.
- On the last lap I decided to bring the car across the line in second place. Every braking was a huge risk to run off the track and I had almost 15sec gap behind again, so I was settled for P2. But then Philipps car broke down a couple corners before the flag and I overtook him in the last corer! I didn’t even believe it at first.
Botniaring will host one Finnish Championship race on 22nd and 23rd of August. The team will work on the brake issue and after it’s solved you can imagine the flow the team has after this successful racesimulation!
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