Aragon Formula Renault 3.5: Gustav Malja stripped of front row spot
Swedish Formula Renault 3.5 newcomer Gustav Malja has lost his front row qualifying position for Saturday afternoon's opening race of the season at Aragon
Malja's Strakka car encountered a ride-height issue in post-qualifying technical checks after going second fastest, and will start from the back of the grid for race one.
Strakka chief engineer Mike Henderson explained: "The floor was very slightly under the limit.
"We checked it last night and everything was OK. It's obviously very disappointing.
"Gustav did do a fantastic job, though. It was one of the best performances from a rookie making his debut that I think World Series has seen.
"You can't take that away from him."
Tio Ellinas in the second Strakka car is promoted to seventh on the grid as a result of the penalty.
"Tio is in the ballpark," continued Henderson. "He was three and half tenths off.
"The position is not what we wanted as he has been so strong in testing. Hopefully he can make up some places."
Malja's demotion means Oliver Rowland now joins polesitter Matthieu Vaxiviere on the front row.
Follow the Formula Renault 3.5 opener with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 1.30pm UK time
REVISED STARTING GRID:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 1m41.446s | - |
2 | Oliver Rowland | Fortec Motorsports | 1m41.628s | 0.182s |
3 | Meindert van Buuren | Lotus | 1m41.674s | 0.228s |
4 | Jazeman Jaafar | Fortec Motorsports | 1m41.692s | 0.246s |
5 | Tom Dillmann | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1m41.709s | 0.263s |
6 | Dean Stoneman | DAMS | 1m41.757s | 0.311s |
7 | Tio Ellinas | Strakka Racing | 1m41.844s | 0.398s |
8 | Nicholas Latifi | Arden Motorsport | 1m41.921s | 0.475s |
9 | Nyck de Vries | DAMS | 1m42.041s | 0.595s |
10 | Pietro Fantin | International Draco Racing | 1m42.149s | 0.703s |
11 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 1m42.270s | 0.824s |
12 | Roberto Merhi | Pons Racing | 1m42.471s | 1.025s |
13 | Egor Orudzhev | Arden Motorsport | 1m42.529s | 1.083s |
14 | Sean Gelael | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1m42.624s | 1.178s |
15 | Alfonso Celis | AVF | 1m42.678s | 1.232s |
16 | Roy Nissany | Tech 1 Racing | 1m42.678s | 1.232s |
17 | Bruno Bonifacio | International Draco Racing | 1m42.895s | 1.449s |
18 | Philo Paz Armand | Pons Racing | 1m42.965s | 1.519s |
19 | Aurelien Panis | Tech 1 Racing | 1m43.090s | 1.644s |
20 | Gustav Malja | Strakka Racing | - | - |
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments