Ralf Aron felt his Saturday in between the sand dunes at Zandvoort was a ‘great day’ for him after securing both victories on offer after terrific starts in both races moved him to the front of the field.
The Prema Theodore Racing driver had started from second place on the grid for both races at the former home of the Dutch Grand Prix, but jumped team-mate Guan Yu Zhou in Saturday morning’s race before doing the same to Motopark’s Daniel Ticktum in the afternoon.
“Yesterday was a great day for me and Prema Theodore Racing overall and I’m happy that my strong suit, the start, is still my strong suit: pulling off two wins feels amazing because we have been working so hard for this and the car feels mega this weekend,” said Aron.
“This the best result we could give to the team and a great birthday present for our Technical Director Mattia Oselladore.”
Aron felt in control for the majority of the opening race despite the pressure from Zhou, even surviving a small moment when gravel on the track unsettled him and allowed the Chinese driver to get a run on him.
“My starts have always been quite good and here, I had a good getaway as well,” said Aron in the post-race one Press Conference. “In the first corner, I was on the inside and I was able to take the lead.
“On the fifth or sixth lap, I had a bit of a moment when I almost lost the car because there was gravel and sand on the track due to an excursion by another driver. Then, Guanyu was able to attack me, but I kept the lead.”
Aron was in the lead again by the first turn in race two, although he survived a small touch with polesitter Ticktum, which in turn knocked the Briton into the unfortunate Mick Schumacher, who was forced into retirement as a result.
However, despite the introduction of the safety car and pressure from behind, Aron was able to comfortably maintain the lead until the chequered flag to move into second place in the Drivers’ Championship standings, just 4.5 points behind team-mate Marcus Armstrong.
“I knew that I would need a really good start and thus, I was able to put Daniel under pressure straight away,” said the Estonian after race two. “There was slight contact between our cars, but that turned out to be no problem in the following laps.
“At the restart, I kept cool and I was happy to see my two teammates Marcus and Guanyu overtake Daniel. This repeated clean sweep of the podium for the Prema drivers shows that the team is working very well.”