Tatiana Calderon made her EuroFormula Open return last weekend at the Red Bull Ring, and claimed two top five finishes for her new team RP Motorsport.
The Colombian had raced earlier in the season for Teo Martin Motorsport, but with her main focus in 2016 being the GP3 Series, she had not participated in the Formula 3-level series since round two at Spa-Francorchamps, but Calderon was immediately up to speed in Austria.
Calderon qualified an excellent second for Saturday’s opener, but was forced to start in sixth due to a penalty handed to her because of her previous experience of the Red Bull Ring in GP3 earlier this year, but avoided – just – the first corner chaos to claim her first podium finish of the year.
“My first weekend with the RP Motorsport team was a very positive one,” said Calderon on tatianacalderon.com. “Straight away we had really good pace, and it was very encouraging to qualify in P2 for the first race and be quite close to pole.
“Of course we had to start P6 because of the penalty, but I did a good start, managed to avoid the incidents early on, and from there it was a straightforward race to finish P3 – and it was a great feeling to finally get my first podium of the season in EuroFormula Open.”
Calderon was unable to better sixth in qualifying for Sunday’s second race due to an issue with her fuel pump, but was again the leading of the RP Motorsport quintet in the race, finishing fifth and on the tail of Drivex School’s Nikita Troitskiy.
“It was a shame to only qualify P6 for the second race because of the fuel pump issue, although we were missing some pace in the race,” said Calderon.
“Overtaking was very difficult and in the end I brought the car home P5, but to again be the team’s top finisher was satisfying and a good way to finish the weekend.”
