19/06/2008
NEWS STORY
After last week's test at Paul Ricard, Racing Engineering and all the teams competing in the 2008 GP2 series are back in France this weekend at the Magny Cours circuit for the fourth event of the season.
The venue of the French Formula 1 Grand Prix has good memories for the Spanish team as it was here last year that Javier Villa took his first victory of the feeder series for motor sport's premier category. This year Javi has not, so far, been on the podium but his good results at the last test sessions, where he was fastest overall in one of them, means the Spaniard goes to the French race in good shape and looking forward to repeating his great results of last season that made him the youngest ever race winner at the GP2 level.
Magny Cours should also be a good track for Giorgio Pantano to shine on. Despite a huge amount of bad luck at Monaco, the Italian is still at the top of the series standings after his magnificent start to the season at Montmeló and Istanbul. Giorgio was also amongst the fastest at the Paul Ricard tests so all the signs are good as regards him again being among the main contenders for victory in both races due this weekend. His target will be to keep the series lead and to confirm his status as one of the main favourites for the championship title.
The circuit of Magny Cours, with its very smooth surface and a combination of fast corners such as Estoril or the daunting Nürburgring chicane, and slow ones like the Adelaide hairpin or the tight Lycée that leads onto the main straight, shows some very varied characteristics along its 4.400 metres.
Setting up the cars to be competitive on all the different sections will be the main target for Racing Engineering during the free practice on Friday morning, before heading to the qualifying session that will decide the starting grid for Saturday afternoon's feature race. On Sunday, from 10:30AM, the sprint race that will close the fourth race weekend of the season for the 2008 GP2 series is due and again the Repsol and Telefónica backed Dallaras will be among the cars to be followed closely by the press and spectators.