12/04/2008
NEWS STORY
Marco Bonanomi - Piquet Sports (Winner): It' a perfect day! I had some problem yesterday at the start, but not today. After I took the lead, I just pushed really hard. Sebastien was faster than me at the end, but I managed to keep him in check. What a great way to end the championship!"
Sebastien Buemi - Trust Team Arden (2nd): “I wanted to win so much today… I had a great start, but then I had problems with my front left tyre. Therefore, I tried to use the rear tyres as much as possible. I'm really pleased with this result: the beginning of the season was so difficult on us and we worked really hard to fix the problems, I'm delighted to be Vice Champion and I can't wait for the GP2 Series to start!"
Jerome d'Ambrosio - DAMS (3rd): "I'm happy to have finished the Asian Championship on the podium. The team's been getting more and more competitive throughout the winter season, and today we're in a strong position with a few days to go to the start of the GP2 Series Championship. My performance here today has enabled me to move up a place in the drivers. ratings, and the same thing goes for DAMS in the teams' championship. It's very positive and I'm determined to begin my next challenge on the front foot."
Christian Bakkerud - Super Nova Intl (9th): It almost feels like I have won a race today having finally got out of this vicious circle I seem to have been in for such a long time! This is a great platform for me to go into the GP2 main series season start at Barcelona and I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to it.
“The icing on the cake is that I drove myself in to my 10th position and overtook all the non finishing drivers before they retired which is a great achievement in itself. Funnily enough I didn't make a fantastic start and only took one car as I had before the race decided to definitely finish today no matter what but it all came together and I took them one by one! My best lap time came on the last lap so there is certainly nothing wrong with my fitness!
“Now the weight is off my shoulders I'm off to relax and do a bit of skiing at the biggest indoor ski slope in the world here in Dubai before heading home and then on to Barcelona."
Hiroki Yoshimoto - Qi-Meritus.Mahara (13th): "I was passed by Sebastien Buemi (Trust Team Arden) and a couple of guys at the start. I had the impression that my car was coughing. It was on and off and I felt a bit of difficulty down shifting. Then I thought I would make it and climb back up to a better position, but then I had a gearbox issue and went off once and lost a lot of time. But, I was able to continue. A few cars passed me again before I reacquired my pace. Then I had a problem with the radio that was suddenly floating in the car and I could only steer with my left hand. Nevertheless, I was ranking 12th and passed two more cars when Bruno Senna (iSport International) hit me from the back and I spun but managed to continue in the race. I was lucky to only loose two places. What an emotion laden drive! I really wished to obtain a good finish for my last race and deeply regret that I did not make it to the podium this time when I should have. Overall it was a tough race with dangerous curbs where you can easily fly off of the track. I want to thank the boys for making it to the finish through eight of the ten races this season and scoring 13 of the team's 17 points on four occasions."
Kamui Kobayashi - DAMS (14th): "By stalling at the start yesterday I knew that it would be virtually impossible for me to score any points this weekend. It's frustrating as my fastest lap today shows that we had the pace to go for victory. But what I prefer to remember are the best moments of the championship: my two victories and my sixth place overall. Both the team and I know that with a little bit more luck we could have finished much higher up. It bodes well for the start of the GP Series."
Romain Grosjean - ART GRand Prix (DNF): "Even though there was no pressure in Dubai because I was already crowned champion, we wanted to finish the season on a high. Qualifying went pretty well, it was my 4th pole position in 5 meetings, we secured all of them on a dry track. My start was OK but the car set-up was not the best because the track conditions changed a lot between qualifying and the race. I went wide and took some dirt trying to defend my position and I fell back to P4 behind Senna, Buemi and Buurman. The story was quite simple then: I had to push hard, it was a great experience to have to fight back instead of doing the race P1 from start to finish. It is always very nice to win a race from behind. I had a great start on Sunday but Buurman forced me to go over to the pit wall and I lost a lot of places. I was P13 or something and once again I had to push hard and I lost the rear riding a kerb. These sort of things happen when you're pushing hard and I have no regrets, but, it was a good lesson. Once again the GP2 Asia has been a very good experience, one we will make the best of use to prepare the main series."
Luca Filippi - Qi-Meritus.Mahara (DNF): "As I was out for the formation lap I noticed that something was not right with the clutch, so I came back to the garage to check with the team. A check quickly showed that there was no point continuing in the race and I would have been a serious risk for other cars and their drivers. They could have crashed into me even if I had been able to move. It's a shame for my last race of the series this year, but there was nothing I could do, so I retired. I want to thank the team Qi-Meritus.Mahara and each individual for their dedication all along their first season. It was just too unlucky that I only managed to score on my first race here this season!"
Stephen Jelley - ART GRand Prix (DNS): "Qualifying went, well, not too bad... But it could have gone better. We didn't get the luck with the yellow flag, and I had to back up on my quickest lap. I only managed to qualify 22nd . At the start of race one, I made a very very good start, but unfortunately it was too good. The officials decided that I'd jumped the start. I didn't jump the start, it was just a very good reaction to the lights and I got the jump on the people around me. Unfortunately there just wasn't the sophisticated equipment needed to show that it wasn't a jump start. They gave me a drive through penalty, which kinda does your race really. After my pit stop I was just driving around the track on my own, which is a shame, because my lap times were very very good, keeping up with the times of the frontrunners, but ended up doing the race all on my own, and finished in nineteenth. It was a bit of a strange race..."