Donna Vekic suffers mid-air fright ahead of Guadalajara victory
The 25-year-old Donna Vekic is in a happy place ahead of this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
Since her first podium at the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix, Vekic has captured pole position at each race in 2012 before crashing out of a home race. That year, she went on to win the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.
Vekic has been forced into retirement by a series of poor performances since then. At the start of 2013, she was part of the team that retired a race-winning car at the San Marino Grand Prix. At the following race at Spa, Vekic crashed out in the race’s closing stages. At the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, she crashed out twice before being forced to retire for good after failing to complete a race distance. At the United States Grand Prix, Vekic failed to qualify for her home event – the final race of the season in Brazil. At the next race in Argentina, Vekic crashed out again before being forced into retirement.
Vekic was forced to retire as she was set to compete in her final round of the 2013 F1 season at the United States Grand Prix before a fire in a fuel tank caused a mid-air scare. After finishing third on Friday, Vekic was given time on the final lap but could not match the pace of her rivals. The incident triggered a dramatic red flag and the race was stopped.
This weekend finds the Brazilian driver in a happy place, but for one reason or another has not been able to get back into the mix in a Grand Prix car.
“I’m like a little bird in first gear. I don’t know if that’s a good way to describe it or not,” she said. “I’m always trying to find the most efficient way to go out there
