Both Daniel and Gabriel have very close numbers in this Stock Car season and something in common: they understood like no one else the recipe to become champions in the category
Gabriel Casagrande started the 2022 season on the right foot by winning the Double Race at Interlagos. There, the pilot from the State of Paraná dealt the cards by saying he came strong to fight for a second consecutive championship in the category. By becoming the champion in 2021, the A. Mattheis Vogel driver proved he understands how Stock Car works.
You don't necessarily need to win every race, although the taste of victory is special. But regularity and constancy in the points zone also leads the driver to glory. Whether you are for or against this recipe, today with the changes in the regulations, it proves to be true. And, in this scenario, Daniel Serra was the first to understand the rules of the game, back in 2019.
In 2021, Casagrande won two races, came second twice and third ten other times. In the year of his three-time championship in 2019, Serra won the opening round that season at Velopark, finished second three times and third five more times. And that's just talking about standing on the podium. The Eurofarma RC driver was quite criticized at the time, because the public takes pleasure in seeing the athlete's gusto in the pursuit of victory.
But when it comes to Stock Car racing, consistency and competitiveness are the main ingredients to form a champion. Both Serra and Casagrande have this in abundance, and it shows in 2022. The second half of the season will start at the end of July in Interlagos and the score shows the duo separated by only eleven points.
Daniel won in Rio de Janeiro, while Casagrande boasts two wins in the year. Both have four podiums and the pilot from Paraná has one more pole position than the driver from São Paulo. The balance between the two is notorious and they are the ones who start the final part of the Stock Car as very strong candidates for the title, with Rubens Barrichello a little further behind and with an emerging and constant Matías Rossi emerging well, especially in the Velocittà and Londrina rounds.
Gabriel already had his bad day in the sixth round at the gaúcha track, when he lost the lead to Serra as he finished that Sunday without any points. Daniel is out of the Interlagos round to run the 24 Hours of Spa, perhaps already thinking about the points he will discard for the end of the year. One mistake can be fatal and undermine any chance of winning the Stock Car this season.
The category starts the final half of the championship on the 31st, inside the sacred temple of Interlagos. It is Casagrande's chance to open a good margin in the leadership towards his second place. Serra just has to follow the recipe for success in the following races, and the possibility of becoming four-time champion and passing his father Chico in number of titles is more and more real.