Brazilian star Fabio Carbone qualified third overall for the first World Series by Renault race of the year at Monza, following an exciting battle for the top positions on the legendary Italian circuit.

Unfortunately though, the Ultimate Signature team driver was taken off the circuit twice in the two races – meaning that he came back from Monza empty-handed.

Monza, the spiritual home of motor racing in Italy, is well-known for its famous banking (last used in 1969) and fast straights that allow the new 3.5-litre World Series by Renault car to use every one of its 425 horsepower. In order to keep average speeds down there are some chicanes on other parts of the circuit, but Monza remains a low downforce track where much of the lap is spent at full throttle. This results in very little grip through the corners, so a lot of care is needed when establishing a race set-up, particularly as there are a number of high kerbs on the slower sections of the lap.

After tangling with another competitor halfway through race one, Fabio commented: What happened was a real pity: I was ahead on the corner and actually already on the power when I was hit. Without that, I feel confident that we would have been third and we also had a good chance of challenging for second. But this happens sometimes, and the main thing is that it’s clear we’re capable of fighting for wins.”

Unbelievably, exactly the same thing happened in race two. Fabio was boxed in at the start and then found himself running alongside another car heading out of the first chicane on the opening lap.

“He turned towards me, so I moved out of his way,” explained the 27 year-old Brazilian. “So then he turned towards me again, and I had to turn away again. The third time that this happened was when we hit. I was obviously very annoyed, as I felt we could have done very well here. We were comfortably running third in race one and that was much more representative of our pace. The event stewards gave the other guy an official warning, but that doesn’t make what happened to us any better.”

For more information please visit www.fabiocarbone.com