Disappointing weekend for Maloney

Barbados and British F4 champion driver Zane Maloney left the Red Bull Ring with zero points as he failed to finish two races at the weekend.

Maloney who was at one stage was in a position to challenge for the title and the rookie title had a puncture in the first race and then transmission issues in the second race. Both of which meant he had to retire from the race.

“It has been quite a weird season for me thus far,” said Maloney – as it is his third time not finishing a race due to mechanical issues.

“We have had an issue pretty much the entire season thus far and are not able to put our finger on it.”

“Red Bull Ring was not the weekend. We had a DNF in Race 1 with a puncture on the opening lap and then in Race 2 we had a gear issue and I almost missed the grid because we were stuck in certain gears,” he added.

However Maloney’s troubles were not over after he made the grid.

“We got off the line and made up a few positions and then I got stuck in second gear so I had to come in the pits. The team tried to get me back out in case off a safety car or something like that but we couldn’t get it fixed quickly, so we had to retire from the race. So zero points at the Red Bull Ring.”

Despite this Maloney is upbeat about the next two rounds which are slated for Monza.

“We have some ideas, so hopefully going into Monza in a week’s time, we figure everything out – because we are struggling for some pace.”

“Hopefully we have found the issue and our season can now get started and we can start winning races,” said Maloney.

Maloney who has been as high as third at one stage has slipped to sixth place with 45 points after three no scoring rounds.

Leading the standings is Yifei Ye from China who has won five of the six races contested thus far. (CG)