iSport - Davide Valsecchi (1st) Oliver Turvey (9th)
iSport racer Davide Valsecchi drove to another stunning victory in Bahrain today to clinch the GP2 Asia Driver's Championship in style. After dropping a place at the start Valsecchi spent most of the race in third behind leader Javier Villa and Luca Filippi. After a stunning turn of pace in the remaining ten laps, Valsecchi closed on the top two, dispatching Filippi on the second attempt after running wide. Valsecchi soon closed in on leader Villa, darting down the inside of turn one to take the victory and the GP2 Asia crown. Team mate Oliver Turvey got away well from sixth, up to fourth by the first corner but a sticky wheel nut in his pit stop cost him dearly as he dropped back through the field. After some great moves on Jules Bianchi and Sam Bird, British rookie Turvey took the flag in ninth, just shy of the reverse grid pole tomorrow.
After Davide Valsecchi's win today iSport have the Team's Championship in their sights as we go into tomorrow's Sprint Race.
Davide Valsecchi: "Everything was perfect. I was really nervous about this race because I felt a lot of pressure to clinch the championship this weekend so I was a little bit worried. So today after the start we had the best car of the paddock and the best driver of the paddock. It was really good to win, really good for the team. We are in incredible form at the moment, the car is perfect for me and I am perfect for the car. Tomorrow I will try to win the race but today we did a really good job. The Championship is won now which feels fantastic".
Oliver Turvey: "I had a good start; I was up to fourth and right up behind Davide. We had the pit stop; I think it was the right time to make the pit stop as I had a bit of a problem with the rear tyres. Obviously we lost a lot of time in the pit stop; because it was so early in the race it cost a lot of positions. I think we lost about seven seconds. After that the pace was good, my pace at the end of the race was fairly good. We were pretty good today I think we could have possibly had a good shot at being on the podium (if not for the problem in the pit stop) We'll try and clinch the team championship tomorrow and score some points".
MalaysiaQI-MeritusMahara.com - Luca Filippi (2nd) Alexander Rossi (DNF)
MalaysiaQI-MeritusMahara.com drivers Luca Filippi and Alexander Rossi qualified fourth and fifteenth respectively for the start of the 34 lap first race in Bahrain. Qualify results put Filippijust four hundredths of a second off pole position in a very competitive session. But the best of the week-end was to come the following day when Luca Filippi finished in second position in the first race at Bahrain and went on the podium.
Indeed, it was a very special day today for the team. Not only the team raced a perfect race and finished 2nd. Filippi also clocked one of the fast laps in the first third of the race with 1.48.496. But today was also Team President and founder Peter Thompson's birthday a special birthday for him who turned 55 today in Bahrain. The drivers encountered mixed fortunes and the American Alexander Rossi experimented his first non finish of his season with MalaysiaQI-MeritusMahara.com , damaging and loosing the floor of the car which brought the team to ask him for safety reasons to retire.
An excellent start brought Luca Filippi (20) rocketing from fourth to the lead of the race for the first twelve laps till the pit stops. Alexander Rossi also had an equally excellent start from 16th to 13th and then pushing to 12th and successively 10th and even 4th position during the pit stop sessions at the Bahrain track but then a damaged floor put an end to his hopes.
As the pit stop session started, Filippi was still leading and Rossi coming up to 4th fastest in the classification. Filippi completed his pit stop on lap 11 just after Villa did his. Alexander Rossi completed his stop on lap 12. They both rejoined the race as Davide Valsecchi (ISport International) still had to complete his pit stop and by lap 13, Javier Villa (Arden International) was leading the race lapping 1.48.054 with Luca Filippi in second continuing to show a dominant pace, with a time of 1.47.644 with Rossi in 11th place (1.50.227). Then Rossi regularly lost ground until he completed a second pit stop returning to the pits to retire on lap 26 where the team made the decision to retire for safety reasons.
There was an exciting finish. With eight laps to go the fight at the top was continuing and the distance between the leader Javier Villa (Arden International) and Luca Filippi was around 1s, but Davide Valsecchi (ISport International) went off losing a bit of time though later on continuing his attack of Filippi. After that, the Italian from ISporet was putting some pressure on Luca Filippi and overtook him three laps before the end. Two laps before the end Filippi grabbed the second place again.
Peter Thompson: "A great race for Filippi. Alexander Rossi (21) did a good job before his pit stop and got out in a good position, but he hit a kerb and the floor of the car was gone. The team dedicated this race to our two best followers, Dato'Syed Sultan Idris, Ambassador of Malaysia and Enrico Padola Ambassador of the Republic of Italy and to all the Questnet fans who came to the track to follow us".
Raad S. Abduljawad, Team Chairman, MalaysiaQI-MeritusMaharaGP.com: "These eight points are a good gift from Luca Filippi to the team for Peter Thompson, on his 55th birthday. A good race that brought Luca Filippi (20) from fourth to the forefront and gained him a podium and eight points."
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