From starting last to scoring points: Sonneveld on his recovery drive in Imola

After qualifying 17th, Gijs Sonneveld was ready for the start of his first Grand Prix United race. However, a technical issue unfortunately marked the end to his race before it had even started. With no result in race 1, Sonneveld had to start from the last row in race 2. With great determination the Gallery82 Motorsport driver managed to overtake 18 cars to finish in an impressive ninth place, which awarded him and the team with two points. "The disconnection was a big drama," says Sonneveld. "After that, it was all about planning for race 2. I tried to get a solid start, but not an amazing start, so I could stay at the back, watch the rest of the field and gain places from crashes happening up front. That strategy worked really well. Some people went wide, and I gained a couple of positions because of that." "I tried to overtake a few people here and there, and even went three-wide, which gained me two positions at once! After that, it was all about getting into a rhythm. A lot of people made mistakes, while I remained calm. I tried to play it smart and followed the cars ahead to not lose any time. That's how I managed to close the gap to Guyon Branten, Marijn Pfeifer and Jurgen Langerak. Eventually those drivers made mistakes, which opened up a gap for me to take ninth place."

After his recovery drive in Imola, Sonneveld is looking forward to the next round at the Red Bull Ring, which will take place on the 20th of December, but remains realistic ahead of the second round of the championship. "I will try to get into the top 20 again in qualifying. Taking advantage of the mistakes of others is a thing I will try to focus on during the races, since that worked quite well for me in Imola. I don't know if I will be able to pull off the same stunt as I did in race 2 of round 1, but I think it should be no problem for me to at least get into the top 15." "There is still some work to do. During testing I noticed that I'm still losing a bit of time in certain parts of the track, but if I analyze those areas and work hard I am sure that I can improve my lap times and hopefully fight for some points."