Raffaele Marciello left the Red Bull Ring with the championship leader after another Feature race podium finish and a fourth place in the Sprint race.
The Russian Time driver has yet to win a race in 2016, but his consistency has been key, and although he was denied the victory again by the Campos Racing duo of Mitch Evans and Sean Gelael, the Italian was happy with his performance in a race of changeable conditions.
“When you fight for the victory and you don’t win, it’s always a bit disappointing but we scored again some strong points in the standings,” said Marciello on Saturday. “Obviously, we are fighting to be on the top of the standings so with all our podiums, we are there.
“I’m quite happy with the result. Still, we need to improve our pace a little bit because we don’t make any mistakes but we are still not the fastest. Until now our strategies worked pretty well so we can be proud and hope to improve a bit.
“When it was starting to rain, I felt quite confident. I was fighting with Antonio [Giovinazzi] and we had a nice fight. I managed to keep my tyres alive until the red flag. But of course, after that, I knew I had lost the win so it was a bit disappointing.
“Still, I knew that I could pocket another podium so I did nothing silly and just focused on the last ten laps. P3 is still a good result.”
After finishing fourth in Sunday’s Sprint race, Marciello was able to consolidate his championship lead, but felt a second podium finish of the weekend could have been possible but for the introduction of the safety car for a second time during the race.
“I was very strong initially and without the second of two safety cars I think it was another podium for sure,” said Marciello. “After the second one I struggled a bit with the rear tyres but fourth is good for the championship, and we can be happy with the weekend overall. Consistency is important and the team is working well.”
