‘The way to keep it clean is to go fast’ – Fittipaldi plans to play it simple and smart in Race 2

Enzo Fittipaldi may not have been fighting at the front during the race like his teammate Logan Sargeant, but the Brazilian racer was equally pleased with the performance of his car, hailing Charouz Racing System’s return to form in Spielberg.

Finishing the race 11th on track, Fittipaldi was later promoted to fourth after a series of post-race punishments - including a 10s-time penalty for his teammate Sargeant, meaning that he’ll now start from ninth in Race 2.

Sargeant had spoken positively on Friday about the team’s Qualifying pace and Fittipaldi echoed his thoughts.

“I am pretty happy. I know that we have been doing our best,” said Fittipaldi. “Everyone in the team is working extremely hard and we are getting better and better.

“Yesterday we had the speed in Qualifying but I was thrown off with a lot of traffic. I was on a really good lap, but I got blocked. Honestly, it was just chaos yesterday in Qualifying. We ended up in P15, knowing that we had a lot more in there.”

Despite going forward rather than backwards on Saturday morning, Fittipaldi said that the team’s race pace wasn’t quite as strong as their speed around one-lap, but thankfully, he believes they’ve already cracked how to fix this.

“Some other guys were much quicker than us, but I think we know why, and we will get that sorted for Race 2,” he continued. “I learned this morning that it is important to be patient here.

“You saw (drivers) trying it around the outside of Turn 4 and it went wrong more than twice and ended up in accidents, so it will be important that I use my head and keep it cool throughout the race. Decision making is extremely important at this track, so I will need to be precise.

“A good start off the line will be really important. That, and just driving as fast as you can. The way to keep it clean is to go fast.”