11/02/2009
NEWS STORY
The GP2 Asia Series makes history this week as round 4 of the 08-09 championship will take place at night-time at the Losail International Circuit.
Each round has had its hero so far in the 08-09 GP2 Asia Series season. If Shanghai saw Piquet GP Roldan Rodriguez stun the field with a pole position and a win in the feature race last October, Dubai was the home of Dams' Kamui Kobayashi's glory in December as the Japanese scored thirteen points and took the lead in the drivers' championship. The third round of the season took place three weeks ago in Bahrain and once again Kobayashi claimed victory in the feature race, but it was his teammate who scored the most points – thirteen - throughout the race weekend thanks to stellar driving skills and great determination. Dams are now clearly leading the teams' classification with their drivers Kobayashi and d'Ambrosio respectively first and fourth in the drivers' championship.
On top of the French squad's great results in Bahrain, three more notable performances put another good spin on this season. GP2 debutants Edoardo Mortara, Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Perez rapidly showed stunning driving skills. On their first GP2 outing, Hülkenberg and Mortara respectively scored a pole position and a podium finish while Perez in his third GP2 race weekend snatched a maiden win in the sprint race and became the youngest GP2 race winner.
It's time now for the fourth round of the season, one that will most likely go down in history. The Losail International Circuit hosts one of the most anticipated events of the month: for the first time, a GP2 race weekend will take place at night-time.
GP2 Technical Director Didier Perrin commented: "This will clearly be a must-see event! It will be a great challenge both for the drivers and the teams. First of all, this will be a first time for everyone on this track. There are no data to work with. Therefore, free practice will be all the more crucial in order to find the right set-up quickly and efficiently. However, we already know that this track should not be too tough on the brakes. The layout of the circuit here in Losail could be compared to the one of Valencia's former track with only one long straight.
"One of the question marks will be how to manage the tyres in unusual track conditions: not only don't we know what the grip level will be, but we also don't know the effect of track temperatures which could be quite low at night."