Daly storms into the points in monza

10 September 2011

Carlin’s GP3 drivers Conor Daly, Callum McLeod and Leonardo Cordeiro enjoyed a strong race around the Monza circuit in Italy this afternoon, thanks to an impressive showing in the penultimate race of the season. Following a difficult qualifying session all three drivers fought back to make their way through the field, with Daly putting in a stunning drive to sixth, McLeod to 11th and Cordeiro to 13th.

Daly made his now customary good start as the lights went out and had already made up several places by the end of the first lap. Team mates Cordeiro and MacLeod got a little too close for comfort however on lap two, and after the pair touched lightly MacLeod was left with the task of recovering through the field.

Having shown in previous races his penchant for overtaking, Daly was still making quick progress though the field, and had set the fastest lap of the race on lap four. By the time Adrian Quaife-Hobbs brought out the safety car following an excursion off track, Daly was already in the points.

Still in the middle of his recovery, MacLeod was one driver that benefitted from the field bunching up behind the safety car and was on the attack at the restart. The British driver put in a number of overtaking moves and had passed several drivers including team mate Cordeiro and was 11th.

Daly meanwhile clearly wasn’t satisfied with sixth, and had fifth place Simon Trummer in his sights for fifth. By the final lap Daly was right with the MW Arden driver but ran out of laps to improve, and crossed the line just 0.078 seconds behind fifth.

MacLeod meanwhile had climbed to 11th, while Cordeiro was 13th, having started the race 29th.

Having fought his way into the points, Daly said, “The car felt like a rocket in the race today! It was really good; it almost felt easy to be quicker that the cars that were around us. I was able to line people up and pass them quickly and then break the tow so they weren’t able to come back on me. I was pushing really hard for fifth place in the final stages but I just ran out of time. Sixth is still a great result for us though, especially after a disappointing qualifying session this morning”

Team mate MacLeod added, “It was quite an entertaining race to be honest! I had suffered from a bit of contact on the first lap which put me off at Parabolica, but thankfully I was able to recover. The car was great this afternoon, especially towards the end of the race when we seemed to have much more pace than those around us, the car seemed to be really good on its tyres. It was a bit like a computer game – I was just passing cars lap after lap!”

The final race of the season will take place tomorrow at 08.55 local time. Due to the reversed grid, Daly will line up third, MacLeod 11th and Cordeiro 13th.