Last weekend was the last race from the ENS series in Fiorano Italy. On Thursday we had 7 rounds of free practise and I started with my basic setup with my all new Natrix 750.
The car was very stable and super easy to drive.
I missed a little bit of steering and changed to more caster. I drove also the new Xtreme Hummer bodie and switched to a low downforce wing to create a bit more steering. I toped free practise and was also on the top after timed practise.
For the qualification I reduced a little bit the rear toe in to have a more aggressive car. I´ve won the first two rounds and missed the 3rd round by 1,4 seconds to finished 4th because I tried a different exhaust type which was not better. Back to my previous pipe and won again the last round and was overall TQ which gave me the bonus point I needed to keep the overall championship open.
I drove already my final setup for the long run in the last qualification and was pretty happy with the car in the A-main practise on Sunday. I drove in 3 sets of tires and was pretty confident with 2 sets.
Fuel consumption was not very good because of the hot temperatures around 30 degrees. So I decided to make easy 4.20 stops and a fuel tire change at half time of the final. I must win the race and Jilles should not be better than 3rd to win the overall championship. I thought he will make longer runs on a tank and also only an outside tire change so my strategy was to push maximum to my tire change and then we can see how is the ranking.
So the final start was a really disaster for me. I had a pretty good start and drove close in the first corner. But Leino tried to passed me in the first corner but he was to much behind and there was also no gap. So he hit me and flipped on the other side of the track. I cutted the track so I waited for the second car to have no advantage from this crash. But the race director declared I have to keep all the cars through because I cut the track.
For me a wrong decision and also Leino hasn´t get a penalty for his mistake. Anyway I must win the race and pushed maximum and passed car by car immediately. So after 10 minutes I found myself again at the first place and create also a big gap to the second place before my tire change.
My mechanics Klaus Lechner and Merlin Depta did again a brilliant pit work and changed all tires nearly 4 seconds faster as the second fastest change. So after my tire stop I was still in the lead and controlled the race smooth until the end. Sadly Allessio was not able to fight for the second position with a bad tire change and some strange contacts on the track.
Finally I´ve lost the overall championship in the previous rounds again of to much bad luck. But with the performance from the car this weekend we´re very confident for the upcoming world championship in around 3 weeks in Miami where I will try to defend my world champion title. Also my pitcrew will be the same so the whole package is very well prepared.
Congratulation to Jilles for a very well and constant season.
I want to thank all my sponsors for the support and the trust in me. Special thanks to my pitcrew Klaus Lechner and Merlin Depta.
Well, the season is almost finished but the biggest race in two years is the next and last one for me this season. World championship in Homestead.
See you on the race track.
Dominic Greiner
Setup can be found here:
https://www.serpent.com/xcart/cart.php?target=product&product_id=10569#product-details-tab-Setups
