Ferdinand Habsburg rued his retirement from Sunday’s second EuroFormula Open race at the Red Bull Ring as it meant he fell further behind Leonardo Pulcini in the championship battle as a result.
The Austrian had been quick all weekend long at his home event, and had claimed some points back on his rival on Saturday having finished second to Colton Herta, despite having been forced to start fifth on the grid having qualified on pole position due to the series’ rules giving drivers who have raced in other categories at a circuit earlier in the season a four-place grid penalty.
The Drivex School driver overcame this by avoiding the first lap chaos and taking advantage of a mistake from Pulcini to run second, but he was unable to challenge Herta for the win. Habsburg however then saw his Sunday race ended early with gearbox issues having made a good start from the front row of the grid.
“It’s a shame that we had the retirement, but we have to take the positives from the weekend and it was really good to be fastest time in qualifying and be back on the podium at my home track,” said Habsburg. “Unfortunately the rules said we had to start from fifth, but we came through the field really well.
“Race two looked good for the first 100 metres until the problem, but we can come away with our heads held high and look forward to the next one.”
