12/09/2008
NEWS STORY
Racing Engineering - Giorgio Pantano (Pole) Javier Villa (9th)
Racing Engineering drivers Giorgio Pantano and Javier Villa both put in excellent performances in today's Qualifying session at Monza with Giorgio taking pole position and increasing his Championship lead by 2 points and Javier qualifying in the top ten with 9th place.
Both Giorgio and Javier took things carefully in this morning's 30 minute Free Practice session as torrential rain had made track conditions almost impossible and neither driver wanted to risk damaging their cars before the all-important afternoon Qualifying session. In fact so bad were conditions that the Free Practice was delayed due to flooding, and at the end of the session Giorgio only did 7 laps to finish 23rd with Javier 0.5 seconds slower in 24th.
Conditions were very different by the time the Qualifying session began with the track now dry and within the opening minutes Giorgio showed just how determined he was to take pole position when he set a time of 1m 31.274s, no less than 0.7 seconds faster than any other driver at the time. Javier too showed that he was very much on form when, after 10 minutes of practice, the young Spaniard had moved up to 11th place.
After setting his quick lap Giorgio returned to the pits to allow the Racing Engineering team the opportunity to fine tune the set up of his Repsol and Telefónica backed car and he was soon back on track and after 18 minutes of the session he went quicker still with a 1m 31.223s lap. Once again Giorgio was back in the pits after his quick lap, returning to the track with only a few minutes of the session left. As the other drivers did their best to catch the flying Italian, Giorgio improved once again, this time to a 1m 31.220s lap, almost immediately the chequered flag was shown and Giorgio had claimed a magnificent pole position for himself and Racing Engineering.
Javier showed that he too was quick at Monza as both he and the team worked to find the right balance on his car and make up for the time lost due to the weather conditions in the morning. At the end of the session all the hard work was rewarded when he took the 9th place on tomorrow's grid.
Once again Racing Engineering has given their drivers very competitive cars and the Spanish team can look forward to tomorrow's Feature Race with confidence. Giorgio's two points for pole position means that he now leads Senna by 13 points in the 2008 Championship.
Alfonso de Orleans Borbón (team principal): "Amazing! Both drivers did fantastically, it's the best start to a weekend we could have. Now we have to keep our heads down and prepare for tomorrow's race. Good job by everyone in the team, after two complicated weekends, this is what they deserve."
Javier Villa: It was a good qualifying. We did P9 and are 0.5 off Giorgio. Given the fact that we had a wet free practice and after were so strong in a dry qualifying, if tomorrow's race is a dry one, I am sure we have even more potential to improve.
Giorgio Pantano: I am happy because I scored another 2 points and this increased the gap to the rest. It's also important for tomorrow as we don't yet know the conditions, but if it is dry, I am sure there is a good chance to win. In any case, I will try to have a good race and not take risks.
iSport International - Karun Chandhok (10th) Bruno Senna (12th)
Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna will start 10th of 12th for the first of the season-closing GP2 Series races at Monza. It has been a difficult day for all the teams, after fierce electric storms delayed this morning's free practice session, but the track eventually dried in time for qualifying and the top 12 cars were covered by less than three quarters o a second.
Karun Chandhok: "I missed the first 15 minutes of qualifying because of a misfire - and that was frustrating because it cost me vital running time in the dry. In the circumstances I don't think 10th was too bad, but with a couple more laps I think I could have gained a significant number of places. The car is definitely quick but the result doesn't reflect as much. I'll just have to prove the point tomorrow, in the race."
Bruno Senna: "The balance of the car wasn't too bad, but we didn't have our gear ratios quite right. The problem here is that cars are very closely matched and a couple of tenths can make a difference of about six places. That hit me quite hard, because I found a little bit of traffic on my final lap, but that's racing.
"I know from testing in low-downforce trim that we should have a quick car in the race, but then again there's a possibility that the weather will be a factor. Either way I think we'll be in good shape."
Durango - Davide Valsecchi (13th) Alberto Valerio (20th)
After an excellent first free practice session, partially run on wet track, with Alberto Valerio claiming the second position and Davide valsecchi the sixth, the Durango drivers finished the afternoon qualifying much more behind, Davide on P13 and Alberto on P20. Once more a result too much penalizing compared to the team real value.
The team manager Luca Zerbini commented: "Probably this has been our oddest qualifying session in the whole championship. We did not suffer peculiar problems but we have not been able to enter the first rows of the starting grid as well. Anyway we are now used to start the weekend in the midfield finishing with an improvement, the points are still at our reach"
Super Nova Racing - Andy Soucek (15th) Alvaro Parente (21st)
The GP2 2008 championship finale is being held this weekend in the Italian city of Monza, on the outskirts of Milan. As the battle to be crowned 2008 champion reaches a climax, Super Nova's qualifying hopes seemed to have been washed away with the torrential rain that drenched the circuit earlier this morning, postponing free practice.
Conditions however couldn't have been more different for qualifying. The track dried and the sun came out, as the Super Nova driver duo went out on their first set of tyres. Both looked competitive and quick around the long, fast corners of the Monza Autodrome circuit, initially leading the field, Andy Soucek third quickest.
Unfortunately as teams bettered their laps times, neither Andy or Alvaro Parente could follow suit, and now have the challenge of starting from 15th & 21st for tomorrows feature race, the bad weather forecasted for the whole weekend.
Local hero Giorgio Pantano, looks to have he could well have sewn up championship, qualifying P1 today ahead of Lucas Di Grassi (P2) and Sebastien Buemi (P3).
Team Principal David Sears "After some good results in Spa last weekend, the team came to Monza looking for another good result to end the season. In the morning there was monsoon conditions which resulted in the un-timed session running late, because the track was flooded. Both drivers looked strong in the wet conditions.
However it was sunny and dry for the official qualifying & on the first set of tyres both drivers were quick, but for some strange reason neither of them improved on their next two sets of tyres, Andy Soucek ending up in 15th place, and Alvaro Parente in 21st.
Monza is a circuit where you can overtake, & slip streaming is the order of the day! So both drivers and the team will have to work hard to get some points tomorrow."
Trident Racing - Mike Conway (16th) Ho Pin Tung (23rd)
The last round of the 2008 GP2 Main Series season started today at Monza. The initial practice session was moved 1 hour forward due to an inclement weather that turned the Italian racetrack into a water madness. Conditions grew considerably better in the afternoon, when a hot sun dried the track's surface, allowing drivers to move from rain to slick tires. On wet, Trident Racing ran good, as Mike Conway clocked the third fastest mark before falling all the way down to 16th in Qualifying, 7 spots in front of team Mate Ho Pin Tung. The first race of the weekend is set to start tomorrow at 16:00, on a 32-lap distance, while 21-lap long Race 2 is scheduled for Sunday at 10:30. Satellite channel Sky Sport will televise the two races live, while terrestrial National TV RAI2 will broadcast live the final heat of the season. All times are local (GMT+2).
Maurizio Salvadori, Team Owner: "Mike ran strong with wet track conditions but didn't catch the right slipstream during Qualifying, a determining factor here at Monza, and ended up in 16th with just a one-second gap from the pole spot. His position could have easily been better by putting together all his best split times: things that happen in such a competitive series like the GP2. Speaking of Ho Pin, I think he's not OK with his car, since his position is clearly different than what we expected. If tomorrow's race will be wet, I think we might have a good shot to the points zone, in order to be guaranteed a top starting spot on Sunday".
Ho Pin Tung: "Today's situation was quite atypical, as track conditions dramatically changed from practice to qualifying. This morning I had small brake troubles, then, in the afternoon, my best laptime was not competitive, despite I felt OK with my car's set-up. By combining my best splits together, I might have improved, but keeping a big gap from the top".
Mike Conway: “I'm not satisfied with today's laptime. The car was good on fast corners, while it was unstable on the kerbs, and that conditioned the traction while exiting from the chicane. I hope tomorrow's race will be run on a wet racetrack like forecast say, since laptimes were definitely better in the wet”.