Pizzonia hoping for slice of luck

Antonio Pizzonia hopes history will favour him in this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Brazilian stands in for the injured Ralf Schumacher again in Belgium as the German continues to recover from the back injuries he suffered in June at Indianapolis.

Pizzonia hopes to rediscover old glories this weekend on the track where he clinched the British Formula Three Championship.

He said: “I have good memories of Spa, where I’ve raced four times in different formulae, including Formula Renault, F3 and F3000.

“The best was definitely in 2000, when I became British F3 Champion, having finished the race in second place.”

Pizzonia has been given time to prepare for this weekend’s racing having been nominated as Williams’ number two at Spa prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix two weeks ago.

His previous stints as stand-in for Schumacher came at late notice but he has taken advantage of the prior warning to fully prepare for his third race for Williams.

“I spent the week after the Hungarian Grand Prix at home in Monaco, training hard in preparation for this race,” he said.

“Spa is a very special place, so I can’t wait to drive a Formula One car around it.”