Showing excellent pace in testing, Zamparelli posted the fourth quickest lap during qualifying before being penalised by a harsh steward’s enquiry to end up starting in ninth and seventh for the weekend’s races.
The Bristol Sport racer made up a place in race one to finish eighth before a fabulous drive saw Dino recover from being hit and bumped back down to tenth at the start of race two to finish in sixth position.
“Obviously in terms of results we didn’t achieve what we set out to achieve, but we can consider ourselves unlucky this time around”, Dino told bristol-sport.co.uk.
“We had a strong pace as we proved in testing and qualifying – I set the fourth quickest overall qualifying lap, just a couple of tenths away from the front row.”
The steward’s enquiry however saw Dino forced to use his second fastest qualifying lap, something he feels was extremely unlucky.
“We were really unlucky, with this lap not being recorded for ‘exceeding track limits’. We reviewed the situation and tried to appeal it as we felt we had done nothing wrong. However it was a stewards decision, who felt I’d left the track to gain an advantage, so we couldn’t fight it. Instead of starting fourth we started in ninth.
“We felt we had the pace to challenge for the podium places, which we proved in free practice, but in race one we found out we had a braking issue, which would have also caused an issue throughout qualifying.
“We changed that for race two and had a really strong race, I got hit at the start meaning I fell back to tenth place, but I made my way up to sixth over the course of the race, overtaking on the last corner of the last lap, which was quite satisfying.”
Despite the difficulties Dino and his team, Parr Motorsport, have plenty of positives to take out of the weekend.
“Generally speaking it was a really strong race, we were fourth quickest in lap time overall. If I’d been in the top four I could have really challenged for the win.
“It’s another frustrating weekend in terms of results but in terms of actual performance, we can all be happy with our strongest race in race two and strong general speed throughout the weekend.
“We have some positives to take away and we also know that we’re fifth in the championship and top of the rookie class.
“I think we’ve turned a corner, in the way we work with the car and the engineering side, and we were just a little unlucky this weekend. It hasn’t quite fallen into place yet, but I’m optimistic that we can really challenge at Snetterton in the next round and push on for the first podium and first win.”
Dino’s next race is at Snetterton on Sunday, August 9th. Follow @DinoZamparelli and @Bristol_Racing on Twitter for all of the latest news as Dino prepares for the race.
