Álvaro Fontes and Toni Forné struggled at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend, where another meeting of the Radical European Masters was held and two new exciting races were awaited. The leaders of the SR3 classification were more motivated than ever at the twisty layout in the green orchard of the Ardennes but, unfortunately, the duo faced problems from the off. 9th and 10th in the free practice sessions, the Radical SR3 entered by Speed Factory Racing was not as competitive as other rounds and Fontes could not improve his 9th place in Q1 – 2:30.898- and Forné qualified 8th fastest in Q2 with a lap time of 2:31.444.

Both drivers were aware of the difficulty to race in these conditions, and their goal was to score as many points as possible. The race was ended after only fifteen minutes as a consequence of an accident involving another driver at Eau Rouge, and Forné and Fontes were 8th by then. On Sunday race two lasted fifty minutes as usual. The committed driving did not pay off enough, and the pair of Speed Factory Racing finished 8th.

“It was a weekend of trouble for us. On Friday we had some problems with the front splitter and it was detected just after both qualifying sessions. Then our major issue was the engine, because our car was 12 km/h slower on the straight with identical downforce set-up”, Forné comments, pointing out that “despite we changed the engine, everything remained the same. We think it is a transmission problem, but we need to check it during a test scheduled next Monday. These results don´t show our effort over the weekend”. His teammate Fontes adds “it was our worst weekend so far. We struggled with lack of top speed and at Spa-Francorchamps is something impossible to cope with. Race one was stopped after a shocking crash at Eau Rouge and our result on Sunday was not brilliant at all: 8th. Now we need to focus on Monza!”.

The championship celebrates its next venue at Monza, next 27-28 September.