Gosia Rdest continued her racing comeback with a strong performance at Circuit Paul Ricard, securing a runner-up finish in the Challenger class in the Alpine Elf Cup Series, on only her second weekend after her return behind the wheel.
Gosia Rdest took the next step in her racing comeback by standing on the podium in the Alpine Elf Cup Series at Circuit Paul Ricard. Rdest displayed good speed throughout the weekend in her second event of the season, qualifying 11th overall on Saturday.
A post-race penalty took away a fourth-place Challenger class finish in race one, however Gosia bounced back superbly in race two. After qualifying 15th overall, sixth in the Challenger class, Rdest excelled in wet conditions to charge through the field to finish 11th overall, while clinching a runner-up result in class.
Rdest returned to on-track competition last month as she made her season debut in the Alpine Elf Cup Series after a break due to a starting a family. It was a positive re-introduction to racing for the Chazel Technologie Course driver who displayed significant improvement during the course of the event. Ending the weekend at Circuit de Barcelona by contending for top-10 overall finishes, Rdest was aiming to take further steps forward as the series headed to Circuit Paul Ricard.
On-track action got underway on Friday with two free practice sessions to give the drivers an opportunity to re-familiarise themselves with the car and work on setup ahead of the pair of races to follow. It was a productive day for Rdest who finished session one in 13th position overall, fifth in the Challenger class, before improving to 11th overall in the second session, while remaining inside the top-5 of the Challenger class.
After improving her best lap time by over one and a half seconds across Friday’s running, Rdest was looking to break into the top-10 in Saturday’s first qualifying session. The Chazel Technologie Course driver showed good speed early in the session and spent the majority of twenty-minute session inside the top-10, before falling to 11th, fourth in the Challenger class, as the checkered flag waved. Nonetheless, Gosia had found another one second of lap time improvement from practice and was therefore looking to contend for a step on the Challenger class podium.
The first race of the weekend was held on Saturday afternoon with Rdest lining up on the sixth row of the grid. After briefly moving ahead of Enzo Carvalhido at the start, Gosia fell behind the Sport Auto Racing driver along with Challenger class rival Clement Berlie. Completing lap one in 12th position overall, fifth in the Challenger class, Rdest was directly running behind the two drivers ahead.
Rdest continued applying pressure to Berlie before her rival built a small gap in the early stages of the race. On lap seven, a personal best lap drew her closer to Berlie and allowed Gosia to cut the gap to less than a second. The following lap saw Carvalhido enter the pits, promoting Rdest to 11th position overall. With the gap behind the Chazel Technologie Course driver now standing at over 10 seconds, Rdest could focus forward on challenging for a top-10 position
.
As the race entered the closing stages, Rdest’s late-race pace was extremely strong and by lap 11, she was less than half a second behind Berlie. After Pierre Sancinena retired with two laps remaining, Gosia was into tenth position and sizing up a move on Berlie.
As the drivers entered the final corner of the last lap, Rdest attempted a late-braking manoeuvre and made contract with her rival while moving ahead to take the checkered flag in ninth position overall, fourth in the Challenger class. A decision from the stewards resulted in Rdest receiving a penalty for this incident and as a result, this dropped her to 12th overall, sixth in the Challenger class.
Sunday’s action began early in the morning with the second qualifying session for the Alpine Elf Cup Series drivers. It was a challenging session for Rdest who unable to replicate the speed she had shown the previous day. Nonetheless, the Chazel Technologie Course driver still managed to set the 15th fastest time, sixth in the Challenger class.
Between qualifying and race one of the weekend, conditions at Circuit Paul Ricard had changed dramatically with heavy rain leading to a wet track and all drivers fitting the grooved tyres.
Despite Rdest’s limited wet weather experience in 2024, she made an excellent start from 15th on the grid to end lap one in 12th overall, while moving into third position in the Challenger class. The safety car was also deployed following a multi-car incident and remained on-track for the first half of the race.
Green flag racing resumed on lap five and Rdest held her position well while applying pressure to the drivers ahead. On lap six, a spin for Challenger class rival Thibault Bossy elevated Gosia to 11th overall, but crucially second in class.
Applying pressure to Philippe Bourgois, Rdest was running less than a second behind her rival throughout the second half of the race. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to secure an overall top-10 result but claimed an excellent runner-up finish in the Challenger class to return to the podium in the Alpine Elf Europa Cup.
It has been a successful return to racing for Rdest who has reacclimatised superbly to the highly competitive one-make series. Her performance in the wet race two at Circuit Paul Ricard was exceptional and this allowed her to stand on the Challenger class podium, while narrowly missing out on an overall top-10 finish.
Now with the taste of competitive action, Rdest will be looking to return to the cockpit in Monza for the final round on 19-20 October - and possibly full-time in 2025 and take further strides towards contending for podium positions.
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