The Colombian brought home a 14th place finish at the British GP, as the alternate strategy gained her a couple of positions after a difficult qualifying.
Tatiana Calderon lined up 19th on the grid for Saturday's feature race in Silverstone, UK, after a difficult qualifying session.
"Struggling to bring the tyres in for 1 lap in qualifying and a couple of small issues didn’t help but looking forward to the race day" - commented the Colombian yesterday.
When the lights went out, UNI Virtuosi teammates Zhou and Ghiotto went into turn one battling for the lead of the race, with the Italian prevailing after some exciting wheel to wheel action. At the back of the field Hubert stalled, while his BWT Arden teammate Calderon had a good launch and brought herself up to 16th.
Mick Schumacher ran wide at the first corner, but rejoined soon after and started another charging drive through the field.
DAMS teammates also exchanged positions in the first laps, with Latifi completing an aggressive move on Sette Camara for P3.
Pit stops started as soon as lap 6, with front-runners Zhou, Latifi and Deletraz diving into the pitlane for their mandatory stops. Ghiotto followed on lap 8 and rejoined right in front of Canadian Nicholas Latifi. The battle that unfolded soon after would ultimately result in the fight for the race win, as Latifi initially took advantage of his warmer tyres to overtake the Italian competitor after several attempts and a slight contact at the exit of Copse.
Ghiotto had not given up his hopes though, and charged back a few laps later after a superb battle at the end of the Hangar Straight.
Ghiotto, Latifi, Zhou and Sette Camara passed Tatiana Calderon, who had temporarily held second position, as the Colombian opted once again for the alternate strategy.
Starting on prime tyres was also Nikita Mazepin, who pitted from the lead on lap 21.
Calderon stopped on the same lap and rejoined in 15th position.
Mick Schumacher enjoyed another strong comeback and tried until the final laps to overtake Jordan King for the last point paying position in 10th.
Luca Ghiotto managed to to open a 3 and a half seconds gap on Latifi and, although he couldn't grab the fastest lap in the closing stages, crossed the finish line to take his maiden feature race win.
Nicholas Latifi finished a solid second, with Chinese Guanyu Zhou taking third.
Aitken came home in 5th, ahead of championship leader Nyck De Vries. Ilott took P8 and tomorrow's reserve grid pole position.
Last round's winner Matsushita was 9th, while Mick Schumacher couldn't ultimately find a way past King and had to settle for 11th behind the British MP Motorsport driver.
On the very last corner of the last lap, Maini and Mazepin had a clash, allowing Calderon to gain one last position to finish 14th.
After advancing 4 positions from her grid slot, the driver of the #18 BWT Arden will thus take the start of tomorrow's sprint race from the seventh row.
Ph credits: F2 Media
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