Ricardo stopped five laps away from the win in his first race in the Stock Car, in Brasilia (DF), last year. After a drop in the seventh, he was in the lead with nearly four seconds over the second placed, Hoover Orsi, when he suffered a mechanical problem and stopped in the middle of the circuit. A new opportunity arises this Sunday (4). Ricardo returns to the track for the second stage of the 2008 season, which will be disputed to 11.00 (local time), with live transmission of Rede Globo. With a few more laps to go and the same goal of 2007

"I was very close to victory last year, the car broke down five laps to the end, i just missed out ... The race showed that we have a good car for Brasilia, but this is just a basis, we must always improve, especially in function of changes that the car suffered from there to here, "said Ricardo, even without making  the  chequered flag he had his best performance of that season. As the driver and head of the Panasonic Racing team, it will be a very demanding race this Sunday, mainly for tyres, because of  the abrasive asphalt.

"The training and the race of Sao Paulo was a good test, but here in Brasilia, with the grounds of the track and temperature, the race will be much more rigorous," he reveals, while recognizing that in terms of success, the fact that the race is being disputed on the outer ring, with four curves to the same side, do not bring any worries for the engineers. "It is even easier, because you work the camber and caster to one side only. You can make the right tires work for the left tires. The adjustment is simple " he said.

Supporting the team in this direction will be the new employee, engineer Alexandre Gramacho, who comes to Panasonic Racing to work with the pilot Ricardo Sperafico, Team mate of Ricardo. "We hired (Alexandre) Gramacho because he will bring significant experience to the team, we will make changes to the car and we need to analyze the results in practice. For now, which is to say that we change everything and we come to Brasilia more confident, because of changes in relation to what we had in Interlagos. "