Weekend horrors

I don’t think I’ve ever had a race weekend worse than this last one. We were ready to take Monza by storm with excellent results in front of our fans, but evidently destiny had other plans. Less than three laps was all I managed in two races. After the gearbox problem in qualifying that pushed us back into 19^th place, I got a great start in Race 1 and moved right up to 12^th. I wanted to get the weekend back on track. I wanted a Top Ten finish and maybe even 8^th place and Pole Position for the inverted Race 2 grid.  The speed was there. I took the car to the limit at the Parabolica and was at full throttle when I touched the sand with the left rear tyre and then hit the wall. You know I’m really not the kind to back off and nor do I lose heart and so in Race 2, starting from 21^st place on the grid, I was determined to pick up the pieces. When the lights went off a car on the right got away very slowly and so all the others on that side headed my way. One in particular cut me up, placed itself just a few centimetres ahead of me and then swerved right again to avoid a stalled car. At almost 200 kph and with my line of sight obstructed until the last second I had no chance of avoiding it. Although I tried to swerve I still hit with the left-hand part of my car and after seeing my front wheel and a much of the nose and sidepod flying into the air I stopped, my weekend at the temple of speed coming to a premature end.
All I can do is to thank all my friends, supporters and fans present throughout the weekend, including my family and girlfriend, who all stuck by me during what was a difficult two days.  Special thanks also go to Roberto Gurian, Andrea Chiesa and our friends at RSI who followed me with true professionalism.