Interview
Granada grateful to 'pick up the pieces' with podium finish in Austin
Natalia Granada praised her strong performance in Austin's Feature Race but admitted she still has work to do to achieve a race win.
The Sephora driver ended the weekend with a third-place finish, her highest-place finish since the Shanghai Reverse Grid Race, after Qualfiying in fourth place.
Granada lined up on the second row of the grid and kept with the front runners off the line. The Spanish driver went side by side with Alisha Palmowski around Turn 1, before tucking in behind the Red Bull Racing driver out of the corner.
Immediately under pressure from a fast-paced Alba Larsen, both drivers went side by side into Turn 3, but the Ferrari driver ultimately took the place. The Sephora driver stayed with the front runners, moving into third after Palmowski and Larsen retired with damage after colliding and bringing out a Safety Car.
At the Safety Car restart, Granada stuck with Westcott, but Nina Gademan raced off ahead with only one lap left, leaving Westcott and Granada behind. They crossed the line in the same order, with the Sephora driver rounding out the podium in third behind Westcott and Gademan, to take her second podium of the season.
“It wasn’t an easy race," she admitted. "The start wasn’t bad, but unfortunately I had to concede the position to stay on the track into Turn 3, then settled a bit.
“We were missing a bit of pace initially in the race, but I think we started to find something we were missing during this weekend. So just settled in a bit better. I think we found a few more tenths. We weren’t the fastest, but we were faster than yesterday and I’m happy about that.
“I kept my tyres alive. I didn’t want to stay too close to Payton for the whole race, especially as I saw that when I was driving quite close, I was really struggling with my fronts. So I just kept a bit of distance and tried to see what I could do.
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“We saw that Alisha and Alba were fighting ahead, for me, it looked likely that there would be opportunities later in the race, so we kept everything clean. Tried to stay as close as we could.
“The opportunity came. We picked up the pieces and even on the restart we were too far away from Nina to capitalise on and try and fight for the win. It is what it is.
“I also couldn’t have managed to get in front of Payton, but that’s it. We kept it clean, which I think was the most important. Grab some important points for the Standings and just keep building momentum. I think it will be very important ahead of Las Vegas.”
As a rookie, Granada will head to Las Vegas for the first time. After gaining 23 points in Austin and moving up to sixth in the Standings, she's closed in on teammate Payton Westcott in the top rookie battle.
The 18-year-old knows Las Vegas will be difficult, but she still has a race win in sight before the season ends.
“It’s also a track where I haven’t been and we know the work that we had to do here in order to prepare properly and have an opportunity on Sunday," she explained.
“It has been a lot of work and we had an extra race here, so we needed to work even harder if we want to be faster and fight for better positions in the season closer. Which is the goal and we want to win, that’s the objective and it's been there for a long time. We are getting closer and closer.
“We are still, unfortunately, a bit too far away for my liking, but we are getting there and I’m sure if I put in the work and the team helps me, which they are and I'm incredibly appreciative of, we can make something happen in Las Vegas.
“I’m very excited about Las Vegas. Might have a surprise coming for myself in Las Vegas. I’m super happy that, if everything goes well, my family will be coming there, and my brother will be coming for the second time this season, and the first time apart from Zandvoort that they'll all be there together, so I’m just looking forward to it."
She added: "It will be a great opportunity and I'll just maximise it as much as possible and enjoy it.”