The Finnish Champion ship series final round was driven at Alastaro Circuit on 12th and 13th September. Milla had a firm grip on the medals as she was 4th on the standings and Philip Miemois who was in 3rd didn’t participate to the final weekend. The team knew they have what it takes to fight for the win in the two races and then the end result would be up to others. Unfortunately the performance of the car was far from normal for a reason that remained a mystery.
“We had good couple of stints on Thursday but then the engine started to play tricks. All spark plugs had melted and there was damage to the engine since it had ran lean. Engine was working fine still, but the reason for the lean mixture was unclear.” Milla says.
The team started to find a reason on Thursday. They used all the parts that were available in any team and also picked up parts in the evening from near by teams. Nothing helped. All the fuel system parts were changed and a handful of different sensors and wires were checked and changed.
In the qualifying the track was drying with a possibility of a new rain shower. Milla had to do laps at the beginning of the qualy when the track was damp and try again at the end. Others improved their times a lot in the end, but Milla had issues with the engine and was not able to get a clean lap. Start position was 8th. For race 1 the track was again drying and it was just a matter of time when there will be rain again.
“We decided to gamble with the tire choise. We knew it was slicks weather already, but we hoped for rain to come during the race so we went with wets to give Milla a chance to fight for positions.” Race engineer Miikka Mäkelä recaps.
The rain came, but too little too late. Milla finished P11 almost two laps behind the leader. For race 2 it was dry. Milla started from P10 and she knew she had to stricke on the first laps to be able to challenge others. She took one of her best starts ever and climbed several positions in the first three corners.
“I had the next over take in planning. I catched the car in front in the braking to Las Palmas, and had no one close behind me so I was securing a good exit to over take to the next braking. Then a car hit me to my side when I was in the apex of Las Palmas. My car spinned and the engine stalled.” Milla tells.
She recovered one place on track, couple of DNFs and a black flag to a competitor for causing a collision put her to P7 in the end.
“I’m a bit gutted for losing the medals because of technical issue, but we simply couldn’t help this one. No one had no idea what was wrong. Thanks to everyone who tried to help out anyway! We will find it during the winter. When looking at the season in a bigger picture it was a good one, although it doesn’t feel like it right now. Two victories, many positive things and for sure we proved that we have speed! Even this weekend we all tried our best. Mechanics gave their everything in the pit and I gave all I had on track. Thank you to the team, sponsors, supporters and everyone involved for this season! Next year we will be wiser, stronger and faster again. Just beware!” Milla ends.
Her final result in the Finnish Championship series was 6th.