Polish racing star Gosia Rdest made a strong return to racing after almost two years, securing 11th overall and two top-5 Challenger class finishes in the Alpine Elf Cup at Circuit de Barcelona, ​​following her comeback after giving birth to her first children.
Gosia Rdest competed in her first event in almost two years when she returned to the Alpine Elf Cup Series at the Circuit de Barcelona. Rdest used her experience of the car and the series to ensure it was a smooth reintroduction to on-track action as she secured a best result of eleventh overall. The Chazel Technologie Course driver achieved two top-5 finishes in the Challenger class and made significant progress over the course of the competition.
Rdest returned to competition for the first time since giving birth to her first child in August 2023, joining the Alpine Elf Cup series for their event at the Circuit de Barcelona. Gosia was familiar with both the car, track and series having competed in the one-make series for three consecutive campaigns from 2020 onwards. Rdest achieved a best overall championship finish of eighth in both 2020 and 2021, aiming for a smooth reintroduction to racing while again pushing for the top-10.
Before the event started, Rdest took part in a test at the Circuit de Barcelona in preparation for her comeback. The Spanish circuit holds fond memories for Gosia as she scored two top-10 finishes in the 2021 Alpine Elf Europa Cup, before achieving a seventh-place finish at the circuit in 2022.
With the Alpine Elf Cup supporting the 24H series, the weekend schedule featured a single practice session on Thursday, followed by a second practice session, qualifying and race one on Friday, before the final event of the competition took place on Saturday morning. Rdest got good speed in Thursday’s single session which was held in wet conditions and was therefore not representative of running for the rest of the weekend.
Friday morning’s second practice session was held in dry conditions with Rdest completing 16 laps in his Alpine A110 Cup car. Gosia showed competitive speed in sector two, finishing the session 16th overall, fifth among Challenger class drivers.
Both qualifying sessions took place back-to-back on Saturday afternoon which ensured a good amount of consistent track time which proved beneficial for Rdest.
Gosia’s time of 1:54.242 immediately bettered her best lap in the morning session, placing her 13th overall. With a time half a second faster in the second qualifying session, Rdest continued to gain confidence and this lap she qualified 15th.
Rdest lined up 13th for the opening race of the weekend which took place on Friday night. She negotiated the start well and took the first turns confidently as the Chazel Technologie Course racer immediately gained positions.
The second half of the lap was more challenging, but Rdest finished lap one in 14th place, fifth in the Challenger class. After getting into a good rhythm, Gosia wanted to move forward and on lap three she overtook Frederic de Brabant to reach 13th place.
Rdest backed up this overtake with a personal best time that pulled her closer to the pack of drivers ahead. As she caught Sami Dhahri, the VPS Racing driver passed Clement Berlie and Rdest was able to follow him through in a smart, opportunistic move. Now 12th overall, fourth in the Challenger class, Gosia put pressure on Dhahri while making sure Berlie stayed put.
The battle between these three drivers was intense as they battled for positions just outside the top-10, with the slipstream effect ensuring that none of the drivers could break away. On lap 10, Rdest was set up for a move on Dhahri, but Berlie was able to capitalize and move back ahead of the Polish driver to reclaim 12th position and drop Rdest to fifth in the Challenger class. Gosia rallied late in the race in an attempt to regain contact with Berlie, but she ran out of time to make a move to finish her comeback run in 13th overall, fifth in the Challenger class.
For the second and final race of the weekend, Rdest finished 15th on the grid, fifth in the Challenger class. The Chazel Technologie Course driver made another excellent start, gaining four positions on the opening lap to move into eleventh place. At first they held onto Matteo Nomblot, and the duo caught a large group of drivers fighting hard for positions in the top-5.
By lap four Rdest was faster than the next five drivers in front and by setting a lap time that matched her best qualifying effort she had connected with this pack of cars.
Junior class driver Nomblot also sensed an opportunity to move forward and on lap five overtook Rdest to take 12th overall. This overtaking coincided with the group ahead settling into position and therefore Rdest began to slip back from those inside the top-10.
Although the second half of her race was quiet, she continued to reacquaint herself with the car and manage her tires in the event of a late race start. On the final lap of the race, Gosia overtook Romain Monti in 11th place to secure a positive end to his comeback weekend of racing.
Rdest completed a clean weekend of racing in the Alpine Elf Europa Cup with a pair of top-5 challenger class finishes at the Circuit de Barcelona. Her race starts were particularly impressive as she quickly picked up the pace and gained positions in the first half of both opening laps.
After a successful return, Rdest will now focus on further opportunities to get back behind the wheel, with Paul Ricard hosting the next round of the Alpine Elf Cup Series on the weekend of October 5/6.
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