Top four championship finish for Ellinas & Strakka Racing
Strong final weekend of Formula Renault 3.5 campaign at Jerez secures top four placing in team standings for British squad
Formula Renault 3.5 race winning entrant Strakka Racing just missed out on claiming its sixth podium of 2015 during the final round of the season at Jerez on Sunday, 18th October, with Tio Ellinas coming within just 1.5 seconds shy of a deserved rostrum.
After an incredibly successful run of late, with two victories and one other podium from the previous three events, the Cypriot posted a best result of fourth place in round 17 which, added to fifth in round 16 on Saturday, 17th October, wrapped-up fourth in the drivers’ championship.
“I would like to firstly thank Strakka for putting a competitive car on track," said Ellinas, “We've had a very strong second half, one of the highest points scorers over the past few race weekends. We need to keep that momentum for whatever our 2016 plans are."
Swedish racer Gustav Malja ended his rookie season in Formula Renault 3.5 a competitive ninth in the championship, concluding his campaign with an excellent top five finish in the final race.
Improving on his 11th position result from the weekend’s first contest, Malja produced an impressive performance in the season finale to post his third top five finish of the year.
“Race two was a good way to end the championship with one more top five finish”, said Malja, “Ending P9 in the championship in my first year is not too bad – big thanks to everyone in the team for their hard work this season!”
Ellinas qualified sixth fastest for Saturday’s encounter, lapping within 0.5 seconds of pole position, with Malja just a couple of spots further back on the grid in eighth position.
Rain prior to the race rendered the track surface very slippery and officials unsurprisingly opted to begin the contest behind the Safety Car, with all cars on treaded wet-weather Michelins.
When racing at full speed finally got underway on lap five,Ellinas and Malja held position with the former running close behind Matthieu Vaxiviere and Jazeman Jaafar.
When Vaxiviere made his way past Jaafar a couple of laps later, Ellinas set his sights on the Malaysian but also had to be mindful of pressure from Nyck De Vries.
Dropping behind De Vries on lap nine, the Strakka driver almost instantly moved back into the top six as a result of a puncture for Tom Dillmann and he then climbed into fifth position at two thirds distance where he stayed to the chequered flag.
Running in eighth place for the first few laps, Malja was nudged back down to 10th position but moved up into ninth following Dillmann’s woes.
Then climbing into the top eight again, the Swede had some issues with grip as the track dried more and more and he ultimately slipped back to 11th spot.
For the final round of 2015 on Sunday afternoon, Ellinas started in sixth position with Malja 10th on the grid, and the latter delivered an awesome launch from the line to rocket into seventh position just behind his team-mate.
Following an early Safety Car period, racing resumed on lap five with both Strakka drivers holding position as some light spots of rain began to fall.
Fortunately, the rain vanished as quickly as it appeared and the team-mates remained in the same order until the mandatory pit-stops began to be taken.
Malja was the first Strakka driver to change tyres, at the end of lap 13, while Ellinas followed suit the next time around – the strategy of ‘under-cutting’ by pitting earlier than some working perfectly.
When all of the stops had been served, Ellinas held an enhanced fourth position with Malja just behind in an elevated fifth but on lap 19 the chance of a push for the podium became a possibility when the Safety Car was deployed.
Racing resumed with time for four more laps and Ellinas initially ran very close to third, before eventually taking the chequered flag in fourth just 1.5 seconds shy of the rostrum.
Securing a top four finish in the championship in the process, Ellinas also confirmed his pace on the final tour by posting the third fastest lap and the quickest first sector of the race.
Malja, meanwhile, had his mirrors full with the view of Dillmann’s car during the closing stages but the Swede didn’t put a wheel wrong and defended impeccably to maintain fifth to the flag.
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About Strakka Racing
From early domestic campaigns with BMWs and Aston Martins, Strakka Racing has evolved to become one of the most respected and successful privateer teams in the World Endurance Championship. In 2010 the Silverstone-based team achieved a class win, five circuit records and fifth overall in the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours. In 2013, it secured a second Le Mans win in the LMP1 Privateers’ class. Ever developing, in 2013 Strakka Racing entered the Formula Renault 3.5 World Series single-seater championship, regarded as one of the best training grounds for F1. In 2015 Strakka Racing is competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship in a Gibson 015S together with a two car campaign in World Series by Renault.
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