30/09/2007
NEWS STORY
Timo Glock (iSport International) Winner - It's strange at the moment: it's just the finish of the last race, but when you hear the engineers and my team boss over the radio, and all the mechanics, I'm just so happy. We won the team championship as well, so that's just the perfect feeling. And for now, I just hope we can get something done for 2008.
Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) 2nd - Things went well today. The start wasn't very good but in the end I held onto second. I pushed hard to keep a good distance in front of the next car and that allowed me to hold on to the finish of the race although my tyres were very worn by the end. In the end I finished second and to do this at Valencia is very good for everybody, the Team, the sponsors and all the people who have supported me.
Andy Soucek (DPR) 3rd - I am pleased we could finish the race in another podium position, we had a really tough start to this season but we've shown in these two last weekends, that we have the pace to run at the front end of the grid and we can be up there fighting with the front runners. The race was tough on our tyres, but I kept my head down and tried to be consistent keeping up with the front two. I had to defend from Borja Garcia towards the end and 29 laps on the tyres made it a tough battle but overall this is a great end to a hard, but enjoyable, season.
Luca Filippi (Super Nova International) 6th - Starting from P18 today to get P6 was the best I could get. We had a very good start followed by turns one & two, & I found a good line to pass people. Then on lap 2 I made a very aggressive & successful move on Nakajima, but was not able to then catch Giorgio Pantano in front. For us the season has been very good. Of course we were always competitive, and were able to fight for podium in each weekend. We had special moments in Bahrain, and several podium finishes, which were great! There were some bad ones too, but this is just racing, anything goes! The team atmosphere has always been great, and the boys work really hard on their pit stop practices, which were always strong. In general I feel happy!
Mike Conway (Super Nova International) 9th - I didn't realise how tough this series was going to be, and unfortunately didn't get as many points as I'd have liked. A lot has been learned though, new circuits too, and it will be valuable for next year if I do GP2 again. We had some good results at Silverstone & Spa, which is promising. All in all it's been a character-building season! It's a shame to lose out on third in the championship at the last moment, because the whole team have worked incredible hard all year.
Lucas Di Grassi (ART Grand Prix) 13th - I could not find a clear lap in qualifying on such a short track and I could do no better than P7. At the beginning of the race I was losing too much time on wet tyres and we had to do something. Therefore we opted to switch to dry tyres. I had no choice but to push to catch up and score the points I needed for the championship and unfortunately I made a mistake. Conditions were tricky, it was impossible to foresee what the weather and track conditions would be like. We had to take some risks, and the gamble did not pay off. I'm disappointed for myself and the team, but congratulations to Timo who deserves his title. I had 1 win and 6 podiums this season; we are vice-champions and all in all that is not too bad.
Bruno Senna (Arden International) 14th - This weekend has obviously been disappointing because I really wanted to end the season with a good result and we had been making some progress. Although the results have been a little up and down, I have to be happy overall with the season. Our aim at the start of this year was to finish in the top ten and we have achieved that well. I also could never have imagined winning the race so early on in the season, and although it's a shame I didn't get another win, I did get a couple of podiums. I have learned a lot this year and will just keeping working hard and improving. I think I have shown what I can do when the car is good and now I have to concentrate on doing even better next year.
Mikhail Aleshin (ART Grand Prix) 20th - It's been a long time since I drove a GP2 car and it was not easy to come back with just a short practice session before qualifying. I could not come to grips with it and ended up P22. But, I had a good race on Saturday and kept on track in the most difficult conditions to take P9. One position higher and I would have been on pole for race2! The day after I could only finish in P20.
Marcos Martinez (Racing Engineering) DNF - I had a very good start that moved me up to third and I could keep up the rhythm but then I met a car with a lot of understeer. I entered one corner and went a little wide and two drivers passed me, in the next corner I was hit by one of the cars and I spun. The rest of the race gave me a chance to gain some more experience with the car. On balance the weekend has been good.
Christian Bakkerud (DPR) DNF - Well that just sums up my whole season because I have had absolutely no luck and I was driving reasonably well having made up 6 or so places in the opening 10 laps when Aleshin tried a ridiculous move which took me out. What is so frustrating is that for the fourth race in a row I have been hit from behind by a competitor and which has taken me out. A disappointing end to my season.
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