30/07/2008
NEWS STORY
The twisty Hungaroring, located in the outskirts of Budapest, will be the scene this weekend for the seventh race meeting of the 2008 GP2 Series. Racing Engineering arrives at the Hungarian track with their driver, Giorgio Pantano, clearly leading the championship standings after scoring his fourth win of the season at Hockenheim. The other driver of the Spanish team, Javier Villa, took his best result of the season at the German track, finishing fifth in Sunday's race and scoring some important points to keep Racing Engineering in the fight for the Team Championship, where the Spanish team lies now second in the standings.
These recent positive results obtained by the Telefónica and Repsol-backed cars mean that team moral is on a high to face the Saturday and Sunday races with big hopes for success. With Pantano being the main favourite for the championship and Villa coming back to the top places and racing again on a track were he won last season, the expectations are high regarding further success for the Spanish team. The team's chances also helped by the great reliability of its cars, there have been no mechanical failures in the 12 races run so far this season.
At Hungaroring the first key to fighting for wins will be a good qualifying performance on Friday in order to be well placed on Saturday's starting grid. Being a track where overtaking is nearly impossible, except at the hard braking at the end of the main straight, starting high up on the grid means increasing dramatically the chances of fighting for the top positions. Therefore the initial target for Racing Engineering and its two drivers will be to be competitive in the Friday free practice in order to be ready to get a place amongst the front rows for Saturday's Feature Race grid.
The high temperatures, so usual at this time of the year in the Hungaroring area, are also another important factor to deal with as the heat, as well as the twisty nature of the track, prevents the drivers from resting between corners, making the Hungaroring a tough challenge, both physically and mentally. These are two areas in which both Giorgio and Javier are always at the maximum level and that, paired with the competitiveness of the Racing Engineering Dallaras will put them among the drivers to follow closely throughout the seventh race weekend of the 2008 GP2 Series, from where the Spanish team will try to finish by leading both the driver and team championships.