Darren Manning Eurospeedway Lausitz column
Germany was good overall. However it was disappointing in one way. We weren't able to capitalise on qualifying fifth, but we got some points by finishing sixth and the relationship with Walker Racing keeps getting better. If we keep this up, we're going to be contending for wins and podiums before long, because we're improving all the time
As rookies, the two-day format probably hurt my team-mate Rodolfo Lavin and me a little bit last weekend. But he was quick at EuroSpeedway, which helped a lot. By working together it will help us both move up later in the year. We had our best qualifying here, and we were a lot closer to the ultimate pace.
In the first stint, I could run with anybody; I was saving fuel by trailing the throttle a lot behind Michel Jourdain Jr and Rodolfo. That meant I was one second faster in the pit-stop and moved back up into fifth.
Then the yellow flag came out and I think Jourdain kicked up the debris into one of my vertical turning vanes, underneath the sidepod entry. After that, I had massive understeer. I had to really work with the weight jacker and the rollbars and we put front wing in at every stop. Finally, we got it about right for the last two stints. By then, though, I was a long way off the guys in front of me. However, my lap times by myself were similar to what the leaders were running.
We didn't use short enough gears, so every restart I got killed. Later in the race, I had about 10 laps side-by-side with Patrick Carpentier, which was interesting but frustrating because
I couldn't pull away. After the race, we had a chat and we were both pleased because I think we put on a good show.
Seeing Alex Zanardi run those laps before the start was fantastic and very emotional: what a true racer. He was straight back on it as soon as he got in the car; he ran as fast as we did. All the drivers were cheering every time he came past and it was tremendously inspirational to watch.
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