Lovinfosse says injury setback cost her shot at top 5 finishes in Barcelona

Although her pre-round preparation didn’t pan out in the way she’d hoped, Lola Lovinfosse was placated by the two points she got on the board in Barcelona.

The Charlotte Tilbury driver sustained a small fracture in her right wrist after Race 2 in Miami, forcing her to ease up on her plans to ready herself for Round 3.

Completing less simulator time than she’d ideally want, Lovinfosse still managed to qualify inside the top 10 for both races. However, she couldn’t make big inroads forward despite being quicker than Rodin Motorsport teammate Jessica Edgar in the middle stint, with her overtake with two laps to go awarding her ninth in Race 2.

“I’m disappointed and happy with some of the performance,” she reflected. “Since the beginning of the weekend, we’ve really struggled to find the right balance with the car. Obviously, I haven't been able to prepare for this race like I wanted with my injury, so I missed the sim days and training.

“It was not the best preparation I could do. Unfortunately, I think this didn't help the result and the confidence I had in the car. I think the move in the last two laps was okay. Now, we will focus and I will be able to prepare for Zandvoort in the right way, I will do my best. Of course, I’m happy to be in the points here, but to at least be in the top five would be great.”

In a weekend that has been an uphill battle from the start, Lovinfosse believes that the potential was there to deliver a lot more but accepted that she had to take her recovery one step at a time.

“I think (the weekend) would have been much easier and to maximise the time on track from FP1,” the Frenchwoman explained. “I'm 100% sure that I would have come here with more confidence, but I need to accept it. You cannot choose an injury. I had to repair it and make sure I was ready to be here.

“So, I prefer to be P9 and have a good recovery than to be last because my recovery was bad and I forced myself to do the sim. I think we could have done the top five easily knowing that the performance was okay.”

Looking to be back fighting fit in Zandvoort, Lovinfosse is balancing her summer break plans. Whilst the Dutch circuit hosts F1 ACADEMY’s return to action in August, her thoughts are already on Round 5’s visit to Singapore a month later. Already putting in the work back at base, the Charlotte Tilbury racer knows that the Singapore streets will be a physical challenge like no other so far.

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“I have a race in the Nürburgring in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo,” she noted. “I am planning to prepare a lot for Zandvoort to make sure we can do something strong there. I think we can get good points.

“Obviously, I’ll rest a bit because the last few months have been really, really intense, especially now that I’ve joined another series as well. It’s been intense, so I’ll have some rest and work even harder for the next one.

“Zandvoort is not one of my favourite tracks, but I’m hoping for some rain,” she admitted. “I know it's not going to be raining at the end of August, but when we tested there, it was raining and the pace was really strong. We will prepare for it both ways — rain and dry conditions — and either way we'll try to do our best.

“I'm looking forward more to racing in Singapore. We’ve already started to prepare for it because it's going to be a really, really challenging weekend. Of course, I'm excited to see the Dutch fans as well because I know they're really amazing.”