21/06/2008
NEWS STORY
Racing Engineering - Giorgio Pantano (1st) Javier Villa (14th)
Giorgio Pantano did everything expected of him by winning today's Feature Race and taking the fastest lap on the day when he became the most experienced driver in GP2. Giorgio's confident race performance also puts him in a clear first place at the top of the Drivers Championship. For Javier Villa it was a day for doing the best he could from his 23rd place on the starting grid, Javi drove a steady to race to move up to 13th at the chequered flag.
Giorgio made a great start passing Grosjean as the cars left the grid and slotting the Repsol/Telefónica backed Racing Engineering Dallara into second spot behind the pole-sitter Senna. At the end of the opening lap Giorgio was right on the tail of Senna as the two cars crossed the line just 0.6 seconds apart with Grosjean just behind in third. Over the next few laps the two leaders were very evenly matched with the gap constantly less than a second and by lap 8 they had dropped Grosjean who was now 2.8 seconds behind.
Lap 18 saw both Giorgio and Senna make their mandatory pit stops, Giorgio lost a place to Grosjean who had stopped a couple of laps earlier but he was quickly on the tail of the French driver. On the next lap Grosjean passed Senna and Giorgio closed in on both drivers as he looked for an opportunity to pass. Suddenly on lap 21 Senna slowed dramatically with clutch problems and Giorgio quickly moved into second place behind Grosjean. The gap between first and second was steady at around a second but as the cars were on their 33rd lap Grosjean suddenly slowed with mechanical problems and Giorgio took the lead.
With just 8 laps left to run, and a nine second lead over di Grassi, Giorgio took it easy over the remaing laps to score a great win for himself and Racing Engineering as once again the Spanish team showed what a competitive force they are this year.
It was a less dramatic race for Javier Villa. Starting from 23rd on the grid the young Spaniard made a good start to finish the first lap in 20th place. The Racing Engineering team opted for an early pit stop for Javi and on lap 7 he dived into the pits where the team quickly had him on his way again. For the rest of the race Javi was involved in a tense battle with Soucek as both men moved up through the field as other drivers had various problems.
By lap 29 there was a very close battle going on between Buurman, Rodriguez, Soucek and Javi. With 3 laps to go Soucek ran wide and Javi tried to overtake but as Soucek regained the track he made contact with the nosecone on Javi's car and the Racing Engineering driver had to back off. The battle continued right to the very end with Javi finishing 13th still right on the gearbox of Soucek.
Giorgio will start tomorrow's Sprint Race from 8th place on the reversed grid and will be looking to make up as many places as possible to consolidate his Championship lead whilst Javier will also be looking to try and move up into a points scoring position and to show the pace he had in Friday's free practice.
Alfonso de Orleans Borbón (team principal): An absolutely fantastic job from Giorgio and the best way to conclude his 100th race, I think we might celebrate this tonight. A fantastic job also from all the boys, it is the reliability of our cars that helps us to lead Driver Championship and to second in the Team Championship. A big thank you to everyone in the team.
Javier Villa: It was a pretty hard race. We thought we could be quick although starting from the back, but I didn't feel comfortable with the car. We need to improve for tomorrow.
Giorgio Pantano: Everything went perfect for me today. The car, the team everything was great. We have a fast car and unfortunately didn't start on pole. But we had some luck that Senna and Grosjean had problems with their cars and I decided then to be safe with the car and get to end. Sometimes I have bad luck and sometimes good.
DAMS - Jerome d'Ambrosio (6th) Kamui Kobayashi (DNF)
Today, the DAMS drivers competed in the first of the 2 races of the GP2 Series Championship on the Magny-Cours circuit, one of the curtain raisers to the Formula 1 Grand Prix. After a 41-lap incident-packed event, the team scored some valuable points thanks to Jerome d'Ambrosio's 6th place.
Kamui Kobayashi was hit by bad luck! He had to start from 11th place after receiving a penalty from the Stewards yesterday, and stalled just as the lights went out and that effectively ended his day.
Tomorrow, the team will take part in the short race and a rostrum finish looks on the cards, an opportunity that it doesn't want to pass up!
Eric Boullier, team manager: “The race got off to a bad start for us as we lost one car straight away, but the team fought back magnificently and we finally bagged some points. Jerome drove a perfect race, as he was both quick and consistent. The engineers found a very efficient strategy, and the mechanics did a grea t pit stop. Bravo to everybody! But the weekend's not over yet and we can add to our tally tomorrow. The rostrum's what we're aiming for.”
Jerome d'Ambrosio: I'm very happy with this race. The car was a delight to drive; it wasn't too hard on its tyres and its handling was very stable. We also had the best possible strategy that helped us gain several places. Finally, I pulled back seven places on a circuit where overtaking is well nigh impossible! I've finally opened my score with three points and tomorrow I'll start from the second row, which means that we'll be able to rack up another good result, add to my points total and round off the weekend in style with a rostrum finish. All very positive!
Kamui Kobayashi: There's not much to be said as my race was over befo re it began. We'll have to analyse the root of the problem, as it isn't the first time this has happed and I really want to find out why.
iSport International - Karun Chandhok (7th) Bruno Senna (DNF)
Echoing the form that earned him pole position ahead of this afternoon's GP2 Series race at Magny-Cours, iSport driver Bruno Senna dominated the event's early stages and appeared to be on course for his second victory of the campaign. A slipping clutch forced him to start nursing the car, however, and the problem gradually deteriorated to the extent that he was forced to retire. His failure to finish cost him the championship lead, although he remains an in-touch second in the standings. He will start only 23rd for tomorrow morning's sprint race, however.
There was better news for team-mate Karun Chandhok. Trapped in midfield traffic at a circuit where overtaking borders on the impossible, he capitalised on a slick pit stop to edge his way up to seventh place, which netted him two championship points and a front-row start tomorrow.
Bruno Senna: "I think that was just plain bad luck. I was pacing myself in the early stages, looking after the car and making sure I didn't work the tyres too hard. The car was handling really well and I thought we were in good shape. The clutch started to slip after about 12 laps, as I changed from fifth to sixth gear, so I began short-shifting and did everything I could not to put the system under too much strain. My lap times were still good, despite the problem, but shortly after my stop the clutch began slipping between fourth and fifth and then it simply packed up altogether. This should have been our race, but these things happen."
Karun Chandhok: "I made a good start and jumped Sébastien Buemi during the pit stops, but for most of the afternoon I was just sitting in a queue - overtaking really is almost impossible here. The car felt good, but circumstances prevented me making the most of it. It was quite a frustrating situation, but I hope I'll be able to give a better indication of my true pace tomorrow."
Trident Racing - Mike Conway (8th) Ho Pin Tung (DNF)
Mike Conway will start from the pole spot tomorrow, in the second race of the weekend at Magny-Cours, after reaching his goal to end up in the top-8 on Race 1. The British driver completed a flawless race, and kept a great pace all-day long, as confirmed by the time sheets. Ho Pin Tung was way less fortunate than his team-mate, as he was forced to retire after bending a steering bracket in a contact happened during the opening stages. He'll take off from the 25th position.
Maurizio Salvadori, Team Owner: "If we consider the outcome of yesterday's qualifications, we have to be really satisfied. Our goal was to end up in the top-8, and we accomplished that with Mike. We'll be starting from the pole tomorrow, and if the fast laptimes clocked by him will hold up we'll have good chances to score a great result".
Mike Conway: "I had a good start, as my whole race too. I found a really good car since qualifying, but I lost one spot in the pits to Jerome D'Ambrosio, who anticipated his stop a lot. Today's 8th place is a good starting point for tomorrow, as I'll be sitting on pole. I think I'll have good chances to clinch a really positive result. I hope to try and get another great ending like at Monte Carlo".
Ho Pin Tung: "I had another great start today, though I lost some ground at Adelaide and I was passed by D'Ambrosio and Nunes. I tried to move back on him, but we touched. I had my left front wheel hit, bending one of the steering brackets. The car became more and more tough to drive, until I finally had to come down to the pits for a look and then retire".
DPR - Diego Nunes (11th) Michael Herck (DNF)
David Price Racing (DPR) enjoyed a strong run with Diego Nunes today, with the young Brazilian finishing in 11th place from a 15th place start, his best Feature race finish this season. Unfortunately Michael Herck, in his first race with DPR, retired at mid-distance, with the young driver still recovering from his wrist injury.
The DPR team arrived in Magny Cours directly from the Paul Ricard GP2 test and just under four weeks from the last round in Monaco. Nunes recorded a ninth place finish in the second of the two street races at this event, his best finish of the season so far. The Brazilian continued to show improvement ahead of today's race, with his best qualifying performance of the season with 15th fastest lap and an eighth row grid slot.
Herck finally made his first race start with the team this weekend. The Romanian-born driver joined the team for this season driving in the pre-season tests, but a wrist injury incurred in the GP2 Asia Series sidelined him for the first three race weekends. The Magny-Cours feature race marked his debut with the team, although with the 20-year-old returning to the car for the first time in testing last week after a long layoff, the team were aware of his lack of fitness. Despite this, he coped well, taking part in the first GP2 qualifying session of his career yesterday.
At the start of the Feature race Nunes was off the line well and into 13th place by the end of the first lap, while Herck improved to 24th. Nunes continued to move forward, taking 12th spot after two laps and after five laps, he was lying in 11th place. The pitlane opened for the mandatory stop after six laps, but DPR as with the majority of the grid, opted to remain on track until further into the race.
As the race settled down the long, smooth track of Magny Cours began to stretch out the field of GP2 cars and limit the overtaking opportunities available. The team brought Herck in for his pit stop in the early stages and after quick work from the DPR crew he was quickly back out on track. A few laps later the team brought in Nunes and he was also given a clean tyre change and he was soon back out, chasing down the cars ahead. Herck coped with his lack of fitness in the early stages, but by the midway point he was feeling the after effects of his injury, struggling with the strength of his wrist, and was forced to retire from the race.
After the field of cars had made their stops the grid order showed a few changes, with Nunes fighting hard but dropping to 12th place after tussles, first with Alvaro Parente and then with Luca Filippi. Unfortunately Nunes was unable to battle at full strength with a gearbox hydraulics problem in the last few laps limiting his pace, particularly in the first sector of the lap. However the retirement of race leader, Romain Grosjean, promoted Nunes to 11th place, a position he retained until the chequered flag.
David Price commented after the Feature Race, "Diego put in a strong performance today. It's not an easy track to pass on, but he was able to make up ground with a good race pace. He wasn't able to defend his position at the end otherwise I think he'd have broken into the top ten, so bearing this in mind, he's certainly starting to show his potential. He qualified well and had his best GP2 starting position, and we're continuing to make steps forward each time out, so we're really pleased with the progress we're making, and I think our investment in the engineering operation is paying off now.
"Michael has had a tough start, but he lacks the running that all the other drivers have had and that understandably puts him at a disadvantage. We have to remember that this was his GP2 debut and he's missed six races. Considering this, he has coped well and has shown real determination, but it will take him time to get back to full fitness."