Rene Binder secured his fifth podium finish of the season at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza but just missed out on his first victory on Sunday by 0.965 seconds.
The Austrian racer spent the majority of Saturday’s opening race stuck on the gearbox of Aurélien Panis but ultimately could not find his way through despite his best efforts, with the two drivers at one point switching places twice on one lap around mid-distance. Binder ultimately was forced to settle for fifth, just 0.563 seconds behind the Arden Motorsport racer.
But the Lotus driver drove strongly on Sunday, running second in the early laps and eventually finishing on the tail of Egor Orudzhev, who denied Binder his maiden Formula V8 3.5 victory by a small margin.
“It is good to be on the podium after the great pace we showed in practice,” said Binder on formulav8.com. “Yesterday I had a bad start but today I could enter the first corner without any problem so I could keep my position even if the start was not perfect.”
