Racing Engineering - Dani Clos (5th) Christian Vietoris (12th)

Racing Engineering's Dani Clos, starting from 11th position on the grid, had a great recovery in an action-packed race at the Valencia Street Circuit today. Quick overtaking maneuvers during the opening laps, a very fast pit stop and intelligent driving were the ingredients necessary for the Spaniard to finish the race in 5th position. Team mate Christian Vietoris was having a good race, heading towards a points finish as well, but ended the race in twelfth position after being handed a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

As it's usual for the Mediterranean summer, sunny conditions and temperatures close to 30ºC welcomed the GP2 field today in Valencia where, due to concerns about fuel consumption, the race distance was shortened by two laps, leaving it with a total of 30.

The start of today's feature race saw a major accident involving seven cars, which caused the Safety Car to neutralize the first two laps of the race. At this point, Racing Engineering's drivers had managed to stay out of trouble, and Christian Vietoris was in ninth place, with team mate Dani Clos right behind him in tenth. At the restart of the race, leader Perez spun off, dropping to the back of the pack, and Dani quickly overtook Vietoris and Herck to climb up to seventh position. Shortly after, the German in the Racing Engineering car passed Herck as well and ran in 6th when Dani, who was in front of him, pitted.

The Spanish driver made his compulsory pit stop on lap seven and Racing Engineering's swift pit stop llowed Dani to pass Pic, who came into the pits on the same lap. Christian came in for his new tyres a lap later, but unfortunately, the German rookie was too fast in the pit lane. Two laps later Christian was handed a drive through penalty, which saw him relegated to 13th position. After the pit stop round, the positions settled with Dani Clos choosing to look after his tyres and maintaining his fifth position, scoring important points for the overall championship standings. On the last lap, Christian Vietoris overtook Arabadzhiev, to finish the race in twelfth position.

For tomorrow's sprint race, the reverse grid rule means that Herck will be on pole position, with Dani Clos starting from the second row of the grid in fourth and Christian Vietoris starting from twelfth. The race is programmed for 14 laps and is scheduled at 10:35 CET.

Dani Clos: "I had a normal start of the race, keeping my position. I saw that there were several cars stopped on the track and was able to avoid them and had some crucial overtakings once the safety car retired. It was a quite good recovery and the pit stop was really great. My team did a fantastic job and I was able to pass Pic in the pits. I am happy with 5th position as it looked quite difficult yesterday, but now we need to work for tomorrow's race, where hopefully will score points again."

Christian Vietoris: "I had a good start today, but there was no space to really pass other cars, so I stayed in 8th position. This was also the position when I drove into the pits for my tyre change, but when exiting the pit lane, I releases the speed limiter too early, which resulted in a drive through penalty. I dropped back to 13th and my race was pretty much over at that point."

Thomas Couyotopoulo, Sporting Director of Racing Engineering: "This was a great recovery for Dani in today's race, starting from 11th place. Christian, on the other hand, was starting well and should have easily finished in the top 8 today as well, but the drive through penalty ruined his chances to score points and secure a good starting position for the sprint race tomorrow. Nevertheless, the overall pace is not as we wanted and we have to work now to prepare the cars for tomorrow."

Super Nova - Marcus Ericsson (7th) Josef Kral (DNF)

There are celebrations in the Super Nova camp this evening, following a superb drive from Marcus Ericsson who started from 24th to finish 7th, collecting some long awaited, well-deserved championship points at the chequered flag.

The team certainly took the bull by the horns in Valencia today, after a disappointing qualifying session yesterday, both cars got a strong start today. Unfortunately Josef Krals' luck was short lived, getting pushed out amongst the jostle through turn three on the first lap. The 19 year old Czech broke late and with nowhere to escape, collided into the two cars in front, launching himself up onto top of them, and sadly retiring on the spot.

With just one car left in the running, the team then executed a near perfect stop, Ericsson squeezing out of the pit lane two places up, to slot into ninth place ahead of DPR. From there on the Swedish driver managed to close in on the Arden's Charles Pic, but not wanting to take any unnecessary risks, comfortably finished the race in 7th, happy to scoop two points, and a front row grid position for tomorrows morning race.

Marcus Ericsson: "I thought it was going to be a difficult day starting from last, but I was really fired up to do a good start for the team. I passed a couple on the straight and took the outside line. A few cars were crashing, so I took the escape route, and had to make a U-turn, but I caught up and I managed to pass two guys on the track before the stop. We did a late stop, and the team did an excellent job. The team is very good in the these. It was very close, but we gained a couple of places there too. In the middle of the race Herck was close but I kept him off whilst I put pressure on Pic, in front of me. But I didn't want to risk it making any mistakes, and I'm very happy to finish where we did. It's a very good result, it's about time! We deserve it and I look forward to tomorrow."