Its on the Barcelona circuit and in front of 62,000 enthusiastic spectators, that the curtain fell on a rollercoaster season for Nelson Panciatici. Yet it had started well with a podium in the opening race in Alcaniz and promising performances during the first races such as Spa Francorchamps or Monaco.
The KMP Team never quit, even calling on, in Hungary, the title champion 2010 in the discipline with the Carlin Team, the Russian Mikael Aleshin. It was a worthy testimony to the quality of the team and they appreciated it. Up against his prestigious co-driver, Nelson Panciatici showed his own worth by being the fastest globally over the whole weekend.
For his part, Nelson never gave up. Many nice comebacks bear witness to this notably in Monza, where he crossed the finishing line in 7th place after a start at the back of the pack, or in Castellet. Not least, there was some very consistent racing which gave him precious points to finish in 9th place in a very high quality Formula Renault 3.5 Series, the highest in a long time according to the experts.
Unfortunately, success evaded the KMP Team and Nelson on many occasions and deprived them of important points in the championship.
This did not stop Nelson Panciatici from being fired up in the final race where, starting from 10th after the first qualifier, he snatched the points of 7th place after a fierce and intelligent race. Having set his mind to do the same in the second race, Nelson got off to a very good start but was hit violently from behind by a driver who makes a habit of it and who also sent four other drivers off the track! Nelson was hoping for a better finish in the last race.
Its always a bit sad when we leave our team at the end of a season, Nelson Panciatici tells us, we had some good times and some not so good, but we kept our faith until the end. We fought with all our weapons and I want to thank Adrien Beurdeley, my engineer, who supported me throughout the season and whose people skills I got to appreciate too. Nevertheless, I would be lying if I said Im not disappointed because we started out to achieve much more. The plan didnt stay on track, helped along with a dose of bad luck. I will keep on fighting because I know where Im at and the winds of fortune change. I think Ive shown that we werent far from being the best and we were very close to making our potential a reality. We have to turn to the future now because we cant turn back the clocks and next year is where its at!
The 2011 season is over, looking forward to 2012 and that success will finally be in our grasp!
For more information on Nelson Panciatici, please visit www.nelsonpancia.com.