21/08/2009
NEWS STORY
Fat Burner Racing Engineering - Lucas Di Grassi (3rd) Dani Clos (7th)
GP2 returned to action today at the Valencia Street Circuit, where Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers, Lucas Di Grassi and Dani Clos, showed once again a great qualifying pace, finishing the session in third and seventh place.
After the three weeks break, the Fat Burner Racing Engineering Team arrived in Valencia with its mind set on scoring the best possible results at its second 'home' race of the season and to continue improving its overall pace. Both Lucas and Dani, came to grips with the Valencia Street Circuit during the morning free practice session. Finishing in 5th and 14th place respectively and eager to show more of their potential during the afternoon qualifying session.
When the fight for pole position started, Lucas, who won the sprint race in Valencia last year, did not disappoint and placed himself in third. He did not waste any time to prove his determination to score another victory this weekend and soon was setting the fastest time. However, his efforts were cut short when Petrov and Hülkenberg improved their times and pushed him back to third. In the meantime, his teammate Dani Clos was in 13th position.
Both Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers entered the pits to pick up their second set of tyres halfway through the session. But with 12 minutes to go, an accident brought the session to a halt, so Lucas and Dani were forced to stay in the pits longer than planned. When the green lights went on again, Lucas was 4th and Dani in 16th position. Lucas pushed and improved his lap time, ensuring third place on the grid of Saturday's feature race. Dani, on the other hand, pushed the pedal to the metal during his last flying laps. He improved his best lap several times, to finish the session in a very well deserved seventh position.
Starting Saturday's race 3rd and 7th on the grid, allows both Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers to aim for the best positions. Lucas' declared objective is to win, while Dani is eager to put his talent at display and score his first points of the season in his home country.
Lucas Di Grassi: Everything went fine today, although we had some small traffic issues during the session. The car showed a good behavior and was perfect. It was difficult to get on pole today, but I think second would have been possible. Nevertheless, I am quite happy to be in the top 3 and we will work even harder for tomorrow's race.
Dani Clos: This has been a good qualifying result. It's good to be at the top, especially as this track is new for me. The base for this result was made in free practice, when we already worked a lot on the rhythm and the braking points; I think we have a really good car. During qualifying we struggled a bit with the first set of tyres, but when we mounted the second set, I was able to get the best out of them. I am optimistic for tomorrow's race and really hope to score points after having been so close so many times.
Alfonso de Orleáns-Borbón, Team President: Fantastic job! Both drivers are in the top 10. I am especially happy with Dani, who was magnificent getting 7th. I am looking forward to tomorrow's race and hope for good results. Well done to the entire team. Like usual, their work was spotless.
iSport International - Diego Nunes (10th) Giedo van der Garde (26th)
iSport had mixed fortunes in qualifying today as the GP2 Series gets back underway after a month long break at the Valencia Street Circuit.
Brazilian racer Diego Nunes was unfortunate today to start off on his final set of new tyres shortly before the session was red flagged due to a big accident involving the Super Nova car of Luca Filippi but Nunes still improved on the re-start to finish the session in tenth where he will start tomorrow's feature race. Giedo van der Garde has had a steep learning curve today as the iSport racer had only ever driven the Valencia Street Circuit for the first time earlier today in practice. Pushing hard on his first flying lap the Dutchman clipped the wall, after running wide, bending the suspension and prematurely ending his qualifying session before setting a quick time. Van der Garde will start from twenty-sixth and will certainly have his work cut out in tomorrow's feature race.
Diego Nunes: "I finished tenth; in the end it was very tight. We thought we could be better but actually we were top ten. We have to fight for the podium in the race. I think we are going to have a good car for the race and try again to be in the points and maybe on the podium".
Giedo van der Garde: "I hit the wall after two laps and that was it. We knew that on the first flying lap, you have to be on it and I went really well through the first three corners and then I pushed a little bit too hard on the exit and I hit the wall. The wishbone was bent and I couldn't continue anymore. I came in the pits but the team could not fix the damage".
Trident Racing - Davide Rigon (19th) Ricardo Texeira (24th)
As the summer break is finally over, the GP2 Main Series started the final stint of the 2009 season, bringing teams and drivers on-track in 4 of the forthcoming 5 weekends. The first event has started today at Valencia Street Circuit, featuring the first session of practice and qualifying for tomorrow Race 1 (scheduled at 16:00 CET). Trident Racing's Davide Rigon ended up qualifications in 19th, and will be starting from the 10th row, while Ricardo Teixeira took 23rd after the session was stopped due to an accident happened to Luca Filippi. Telecast for tomorrow's race will be provided by Sky Sports, while the second race of the weekend will take off as tradition on Sunday morning.
Davide Rigon: "It's been a really tough day as in practice e didn't perform as we should. In Qualifying, the car's handling improved but, also due to torrid weather, we just had one flying lap available for a set of tires and we ended up. In my first flyer I failed to get a good split in the first sector, where I lost a couple of tenths, and in general traffic on a street-course is always a threat while searching for a fast laptime. I really like the racetrack tough, and I hope for some further improvement tomorrow, as the race will be long and difficult"
Ricardo Texeira: "This morning's practice session hasn't been easy. The track isn't that easy to learn, and there was a lot of dirt. In Qualifying though, things worked out fine, despite once again I was slowed down by traffic on both my attempts. On my second attempt, I could have lapped 3 tenths of a second quicker, but I was forced to slow down due to a car in its out lap in the third sector. Tomorrow's race will be really hard, both on the tire management and on the physical point of view, and I'm really happy about the improvement made on street tracks after the disappointing weekend at Monte Carlo".
Durango - Nelson Panciatici (23rd) Stefano Coletti (25th)
Hard day for Durango today in valencia. Both cars could not take part at the mornig practice session because of garbo troubles. This obviously arose an extra problem for the drivers on top of the fact that they both were debuting on this track at the wheel of a GP2 car. So at the end of afternoon qualifying Nelson Panciatici took P23. Stefano Coletti, who is at his absolute debut in a GP2 cockpit, took P25.
Nelson Panciatici: "This morning gearbox problems surely slowed me down even in the afternoon. I thought I could qualify some rows more in front, but this is it, so tomorrow I will have to sweat much more to do something good".
Stefano Coletti: "I tried to do the best that I could but debuting directly in qualifying is not the more ideal of the situations. I need to put some mileage under my belt to learn how to exploit to car, so for tomorrow I simply hope to finish the race".