Communiqués de presse - Four Collisions!

Four Collisions!

North American F2 driver Monty Semprini is known for smooth driving and keeping his car out of trouble but as did the Upstate New York skies over Watkins Glen on Sunday, when it rains it pours as Monty was involved in four collisions (including three in three successive laps with Michal Dostal) and surviving them all before miraculously dragging his crippled machine across the line in seventh position. The popular Canadian veteran was highly critical of Czech rival Dostal.

"Once is an accident but three times? Come on," a soggy Semprini rolled his eyes after the race. "Cost me at least a podium, probably a win."

The first contact was made on lap 11 when the over eager Dostal was being held up by Semprini and carelessly tapped him from behind on the front straight. The Czech took the worst of it suffering a crumpled nose. Despite the damage, the same scenario presented itself on the following tour in the same place on the track. This time Semprini moved across to block Dostal, clouting him and causing a problem that Monty would later describe as "upsetting the rear end stability of the car." Then on the thirteenth lap, just as the pair had safely made it down the front straight, exiting turn 2 it happened yet again. This time Dostal clearly punting the Canadian into two wheels over the kerb and forcing him to lift letting both Dostal and Paul Saville through and making a right mess of his diffuser in the process.

Most felt that Monty himself was at fault for the second contact but he defended himself in the paddock scrum.

"Well if he would have not made such erratic moves I could have made a more conventional defense. If he was that much faster why didn't he just power past down the back straight into the chicane?" he explained. "It's one thing to be aggressive but it's another to be stupid. You have to stand your ground against moves like that sometimes even if it means contact otherwise you're sending a message that anyone can just do something stupid in your mirror and you'll just jump out of the way for them. It's my track, my line, my corner. If you want it, make it clean or back the f**k off."

A fourth contact for Monty was made late in the race with Damon Novikov as the two headed into turn 9. The Russian misjudged his braking in the treacherous wet and slid into Semprini's Ray-Ban Dallara, punching an obvious hole in the left sidepod.

Dostal finished a soaked tenth in a race that saw the rarest of victories from fellow Canadian Sergio Swampish.

"Sergio took the lead because he pitted with the early safety car," explained Semprini alluding to the yellow flags brought out by a tangle at the chicane between the similarly named Brais Prado and Andres Prada leaving the former stuck in the gravel at the end of the back straight. "I reacted at the same time and I was quicker than him before all the damage so do your own math where I could have ended up."

The win increases Swampish's points tally by half again up to 75, enough to vault him from tenth to eighth on the table. Meanwhile a lacklustre fourteen points on the weekend keeps Semprini in third with a trio sniping at his heels with just two tense rounds remaining. Novikov sits knotted with Brit Ray Striver on 148, the latter scoring second and fourth places this week at the Glen to move past New Zealand's Malcolm Reid on 145. Romain Louis Grosjean holds a commanding lead after a third place finish on Sunday bringing his total to 293, 62 clear of Portugal's Johnny da Costa who collected a win in the sprint en route to a strong 43-point weekend.