Bianca Bustamante's momentum was halted due to an on-track collision that ended her race in Monza.
Bianca Bustamante was en route to an optimistic end to her debut weekend in the Euro 4 Championship Round 3 at the Autodromo Monza before an on-track collision ended her campaign early in Race 3 on Sunday, October 6.
After fighting from a difficult qualifying spot of P20 to as high as P12, Bustamante wound up P28 in her last race of the weekend with ART Grand Prix, ending her race in the wall.
Taking to Instagram on Monday night, Bustamante bared her thoughts on what transpired during the weekend, including her physical condition.
“Finished up Euro4 in Monza this past weekend. Big grids and strong competition, but we weren’t able to deliver the results we wanted here in Italy. Rain conditions in the practice sessions followed by dry qualifying meant that I wasn’t able to get the most out of myself,” wrote Bustamante.
“Had a lot of hard battles in all the races, and race 3 was especially going well moving up from P20 to as high as P12, but unfortunately two incidents in the race meant I finished in the wall. I’m ok but I have a sore shoulder and neck this morning, but thanks to all that reached out with concern, I’m doing well.”
In the first two races, Bustamante’s fortunes weren’t that much better — finishing P18 and P24 in Races 1 and 2, respectively.
For the 19-year-old, it has been a difficult stretch as she also experienced two back-to-back scoreless weekends at the F1 Academy with McLaren.
Since coming back from summer break, Bustamante has yet to score on a race after scoring in every race in F1 Academy prior to the hiatus. At one point, Bustamante was P5 in the standings.
But after her recent struggles, she’s slipped to P7.
Addressing her challenging stretch, Bustamante said that she is focusing on improvement.
“[To be honest], the season started off pretty strong, but the past couple months have been tough for me. Despite having good speed, things haven’t come together well which has led to less than ideal results on track,” said the driver who is now based in London.
“I always want to be the first to recognise and admit when I need to improve, and I’m very focused on doing just that.”
Bustamante is expected to race later this month in another F4 championship with the Italian F4, still under ART Grand Prix.