The first race day for SMP Racing by AVF at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez ended up with a podium finish in the seventh round of the World Series Formula V8 3.5. After finishing third in qualifying, Matevos Isaakyan lost a position at the first corner, while team-mate Egor Orudzhev went out of contention prompting a safety-car intervention. At the re-start, Isaakyan put pressure on his opponents, cruising back to third place during the sixth lap, and then to P2 on lap 19 securing a valuable podium position. However, despite setting the fastest lap of the race in the final stages, Matevos lost the championship lead by only two points in favour of Pietro Fittipaldi. In Sunday’s race, Orudzhev will take-off from second place while Isaakyan will go for a bold recovery from seventh place.
Matevos Isaakyan (SMP Racing by AVF)
“The start has been chaotic, I lost one position but I knew that the race was going to be long, After the restart I managed to keep my position and I progressively closed the gap with the other drivers, even setting the fastest lap of the race, so I’m happy with this result”.
Egor Orudzhev (SMP Racing by AVF)
“The pace was not that bad and in qualifying I did a mega lap. In the race of course I went too deep, and I realized I had to go straight to avoid contacts… Unfortunately I found the wall, otherwise I could have rejoined the race and fought for the podium. Maybe if I made contact with somebody in the first corner I would still be in race”.