11/04/2008
NEWS STORY
Romain Grosjean - ART Grand Prix (Winner): "I had a good start, but then I missed the braking point at the hairpin. That's when Senna made a good move and passed me. After that, I had a great fight with the Trust Team Arden boys to get back in front. I fought all the way to the win."
Sebastien Buemi - Trust Team Arden (2nd): "This podium is another great result for the team. Tonight, I'm only one point behind Petrov. He will start in front of me tomorrow, so I'll have to make another great start and fight until the last lap in order to finish second of the championship."
Yelmer Buurman - Trust Team Arden (3rd): "This is only my third round in the GP2 Asia Series, therefore this is an amazing result for me and the team. I don't know what will happen tomorrow,
but I will do anything to get some more points."
Hiroki Yoshimoto - Qi-Meritus.Mahara (5th): "In qualifying I ended up fifth and the potential was there for a good first race. I had a bad start as unfortunately Kamui Kobayashi stalled on the grid ahead of me and I lost a bit of time avoiding him. Then I adopted the pace necessary to get back in the rhythm and was quickly back in ninth. We opted for an early pit stop on lap 4 and rejoined in 15th. I fought my way back up the order and kept pushing hard and eventually finished fifth. I'm happy to bring the team four more points and looking forward to being just as competitive in race 2."
Jerome d'Ambrosio - DAMS (7th): "I was rather disappointed this morning after qualifying as, without a small error, I'd have been in the top five. But I really went for it in the race, and thanks to my team's excellent strategy I finished in the points. Tomorrow, my grid position gives me the possibility of a podium finish and that'll be my aim. I'm feeling increasingly at home in the car and I reckon I'm up to the challenge."
Luca Filippi - Qi-Meritus.Mahara (13th): "With the team, we have done a good job to prepare for the last two races. In the morning I completed fifteen laps and was reasonably satisfied with my second fastest time. The grip was ok and the car felt much better than before. I qualified in ninth place and could have been higher had we not had a problem with the clutch. I had a bad start and dropped from 9th to 21st. Then I had an early pit stop spent the rest of the race fighting my way back up the order and managed to get back to thirteenth."
Kamui Kobayashi - DAMS (DNF): "A bad day for me. It all began well with a good qualifying session and third place on the grid. Unfortunately, the incident at the start ruined my chances and my accident did not help matters much. I'll do my level best tomorrow, but starting from twenty-first place in the short race doesn't make things easy. I can't count on rain in Dubai to cause upsets in the pack."
Christian Bakkerud - Super Nova Intl (DNF): "I made up a lot of places from the start and was in 12th place with 15 laps to go when it was obvious that I had a serious brake problem and it was too dangerous to continue. I was a lot quicker than the guys in front and was attacking Karun Chandhok but my brake pedal kept getting longer and longer and I had no alternative than to pit. We have since found out that a seal in the brake calliper had perished and air was leaking in. I made a great start and was really looking forward to a decent finish today to be able to have something to build on for tomorrow but it wasn't to be. I won't give up though and will keep fighting for the points that I think I deserve!"
Bruno Senna - iSport International (Disqualified): "I was never meant to win this championship. In the pitstop I wanted my front left changing because I could see it was losing shape but the tyre wasn't ready as the team had planned to change both rears. It's going to be hard tomorrow starting from the back so all I can do is try to do my best to finish the season in a positive way."