DENZEL FIORINI
Denzel had a very difficult start to the weekend.
The set-up of the car just wasn't working for him, and that lack of comfort made him make mistakes that aggravated the situation even more.
This meant that, in the data analysis, the chassis problems were not clearly visible, so Friday was practically wasted looking for solutions. We spent all the practice runs running in the last positions, knowing that this is not our current level.
Saturday morning's rain changed the course of the weekend. We went out with a rain setup and did a good qualifying, which put us in a good position for qualifying.
In the two qualifying heats we did a good job, resetting the setup, and with the driver gaining confidence again, finishing P17 and P7, getting P10 on Sunday.
Going into Sunday, we knew what our job was: to try to stay alive on track. And, in fact, we did it perfectly, finishing P12 in the first race. But, once again (and as usual, unfortunately), a touch in which we had nothing to do with left us out of the race on the first lap.
Despite that last result, we finished the championship happy, going from strength to strength. The results of the races do not match the sensations, because in most of them we have been involved in multiple accidents where you can do little or nothing, but with the idea that we are still moving forward.
JAIME DEL PORTILLO
Jaime started the weekend with a lot of problems, which, fortunately, went away by Sunday, where he put in a great performance.
On Friday he was running quite slow times, and we were sure that the set-up was working, as the previous weekend, in the tests, he was able to do much better times.
The driver himself told us that he didn't have the right attitude and that this was probably one of the reasons why he wasn't setting the times.
Saturday was very difficult for us. Due to some problems we couldn't start qualifying in the morning, so we were last for the two qualifying heats.
But the problem was even worse when we couldn't go out for the first heat due to lack of time when we tried to enter the pre-grid, so we were again the last classified. For the second heat, with all the problems already solved, he managed to climb six positions, finally finishing in P29th position.
On Sunday he finally got into a real rhythm, and in the first race he moved up 12 positions, finishing in 23rd place, with a great race, where there was everything in the middle of the grid.
In race 2, after a good start, he managed to get close to the top 10, but a touch sent him back again, finishing in P22.
DIEGO ALONSO
For Diego it was not exactly the best weekend. The presence of a lot of fast people to help the championship and some individual mistakes meant that he couldn't qualify for Sunday.
After a hesitant Friday, where we struggled to get into a rhythm, we arrived at Saturday's qualifying with a wet track. Diego, who had only ridden once before in the wet, suffered a lot in qualifying, finishing 37th.
He wasn't much luckier in the qualifying heats either, where he could only manage P25 and P27.
This meant that he would finally occupy 39th position in the classification, being out of the cut and thus losing the opportunity to compete in Sunday's races.
He says goodbye to his first season in the CEK, which has been very productive, improving in all aspects of driving.
HENRY MERCIER
It was not Henry's weekend either. He didn't qualify for Sunday, which meant that he was also out of action on Saturday.
On Friday we had a good practice session, where we were close to the fastest times, as we have been doing in the last few races.
For Saturday's qualifying, Henry was the fastest of the team, taking the fourteenth position in the overall classification, which made us start in very good positions in the qualifying rounds.
In the first qualifying race, we started in the Top 10 and we knew that our goal was to get the car to the finish line intact. In the end, we ended up with a 14th place, which was good enough to score good points and stay close to our goal.
However, for the second race everything went wrong. On the formation lap of the race, due to multiple braking in the leading area, an accordion effect was formed at the back, where many of the drivers ended up putting the front pontoon due to touches with the car in front. After this, we managed to get out, but on the first lap, a brake problem meant that we had to retire.
With this retirement, we were only one point away from making the qualifying cut and being able to race on Sunday. Therefore, with this bad result he said goodbye to the CEK.
ALBERTO HURTADO
Alberto had the worst and the best weekend of the season at the same time.
We came with options to compete for the Spanish championship, although very far from being fulfilled. However, we worked hard to try to go all out.
On Friday we were riding very fast, certifying all the tests we had done in the previous week.
But on Saturday everything became cloudy, just like the day. The worst possible classification sent us to 42nd position. Obviously, this made it even more difficult for us to fight.
However, neither Alberto nor the team was going to give up. In the first qualifying race it was all or nothing. The track was wet after the rain in qualifying, but we were beginning to see that it wasn't so wet, so we decided to set up the setup and dry tyres and prayed that it would work out well. And it did: +25 positions for him, arriving at the chequered flag in P3, making the comeback of the year and masterfully saving the trouble of qualifying.
For the second race and with the track completely dry, we put the dry setup back on and set a slightly shorter development so that he could overtake. And, indeed, he did it again. He crossed the finish line in sixth position, up another 22 positions. In short, +47 positions gained in two qualifying heats that helped us to start in P4 on Sunday, having saved the furniture ‘in extremis’.
However, on Sunday we were once again faced with the bitter side of the coin. A touch in the first laps of race 1 sent us backwards, where we managed to get up to P9; and in the second race, one of the drivers on the track tried to intentionally take the driver in front of us, failed in his attempt and ended up hitting us, causing damage to the chassis and ending the race in P19.
We leave Chiva with a bitter taste, seeing the great pace we had and that we could have fought for the championship until the end; but happy for the great work done and above all for that wonderful Saturday.
DANIEL BRIZ
With Dani something similar happened to Hurtado, we were in the middle of the fight for the championship (second in the general classification), but on Saturday he complicated everything for us.
Just like Alberto, the classification was terrible, being the worst of the season without a doubt, with a P28 in the end. This also made us lose practically any chance of fighting for the championship.
In the qualifying heats we tried to recover as much as we could, finishing P13 in the first one after receiving a penalty of +5s, and in the second one P15 also with a penalty, but this time of +10s.
On Sunday, we started P22 in race 1, where we were again penalised, finishing P11. In race 2 we managed to move up to P5.
With this result, we didn't win the championship, so we didn't achieve our goal. We have done a good job during the whole season, but not enough to beat our rivals.
