14/03/2010
NEWS STORY
Scuderia Coloni - Alvaro Parente (3rd) Will Bratt (16th)
Scuderia Coloni's GP2 Asia campaign ended on a high: at the end of Bahrain's Race 2, the last one for this asian season, the Italian team hailed the third place finish clinched by Alvaro Parente. Getting on the podium was the icing of the cake for a great weekend, in which the team performance got better and better day after day, with the number 24 Coloni car always among the top runners. After finishing 4th in yesterday's Feature race, Parente started from the fifth spot of the reversed grid for the Sprint race: Alvaro did a perfect start, overtaking Villa and taking 3rd place behind Ricci and Bird, and ahead of the Asia Series Champion, Davide Valsecchi. In the first laps Valsecchi tried to put some pressure on Parente, but the Portuguese showed again that he knows how to cope with that. Alvaro was very fast in the first and third sector, and used this to manage the gap. After half race, then, Parente got away while Valsecchi was stuck in a fight with Rossi. From then on it was an untroubled race, Alvaro had just to stay calm and focused to give Scuderia Coloni a wonderful 3rd place which is the fulfilment to a really good GP2 Asia campaing.
On the other Scuderia Coloni car, Will Bratt started from 8th row and thanks to a good start he immediately managed to recover one position. Then, he got stuck fighting in that group and had to settle for 16th place.
Paolo Coloni: I'm really really satisfied of this weekend. Closing the series with a podium shows everybody how good the job we did in this last months was. For us, the Asia Series was just a way to find the correct set-up of the team for the Main Series and from this point of view, we are getting a really good feedback. And let me say thanks to Alvaro Parente, he really made the most of the engineers and mechanic's hard work. I'm also happy of the learning path that Will Bratt completed with us as a reward for winning the Euroseries 3000 in 2009. I think that the experience and knowledge he gathered will be very useful for the rest of his career.
Alvaro Parente: I think we had a good weekend in general, getting p4 and then p3 is always good. Just one part of the track was costing us some time, but we have all the informations we need to improve! And I'd like to say thanks to everybody for the good job.
Will Bratt: The Asia Series has been really tough for me, which overall was quite disappointing considering we had been very fast in the Main Series car during testing in November. I think I got some good experience of GP2 race conditions though so that if I return to this championship in the more powerful car, I will be able to attack right away.
MalaysiaQI-MeritusMahara.com - Alexander Rossi (5th) Luca Filippi (8th)
MalaysiaQI-MeritusMahara.com driver Luca Filippi secured second position in the 2009-2010 GP2 Asia Drivers' Championship after the final race of the season ended at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) today.
The Italian, who delivered the Malaysian team's first ever pole on Friday and victory yesterday, ended the season on 29 points. David Valsecchi of iSport International was crowned champion with 56 points.
Giacomo Ricci of DPR was third on 28 points while Arden team mates Charles Pic and Javier Villa were tied on 19 points. Filippi's team mate, American rookie Alexander Rossi, finished tied for eight on 12 poinths with former MalaysiaQI-MeritusMahara.com driver Alvaro Parente.
Filippi said: "After my win yesterday, I am not happy to finish seventh. But at least I scored 29 points for the team. Javier Villa and Charles Pic were a bit close to me. We were side by side. Overall I had a great season with the team and want to thank everyone for doing such a good job and helping me to get a fantastic win yesterday."
MalaysiaQI-MeritusMahara.com finished the 2009-2010 GP2 Asia Series in fourth position after Rossi gave it another two points when he finished fifth in today's race.
With the result, the only Asian team in the series finished with 34 points to end up behind iSport International (73 points), Arden (38 points) and DPR (35 points). This is also the team's best ever points tally after finishing with 18 and nine points in the first two seasons to be placed ninth and 10th in the overall standings.
"I am so happy to finish in the points for the team and to have scored 12 points this season. This race, I had a great start and from 11th, I made a good number of positions," said Rossi, who secured his first seven points as an Ocean Racing Technology driver.
"Then I was blocked behind Valsecchi and Parente and could not progress. But I was pushing hard and trying to catch the right moment. Towards the end, I went slightly off track, but luckily continued at Turn 3 and did not lose a position."
Once again Dato' Syed Sultan Idris Ambassador of Malaysia to the Kingdom of Bahrain supported the team on the grid, which saw the top eight drivers start in reverse positions. Luca Filippi, who have the team its first ever GP2 victory yesterday, started eight while Rossi started in 11thh
Managing director and co-owner Firhat Mokhzani said: "We dedicate this win to the Malaysian people who have been fully behind us and we hope to keep making Malaysia proud by winning more races in future. We will be back and I want to wish Fillippi and Rossi very good luck for the future."
Chairman Raad S. Abduljawad said: "This is another excellent race and a good way to finish the season on a high note with Filippi second in the Drivers' Championship. We have been working all season to improve the team. A win, podiums and points are good sign for the strength of the team. Thanks a lot to all for their good work in front of the F1 fans and team members gathered in Bahrain International Circuit today."
Ocean Racing Technology - Yelmer Buurman (7th) Fabio Leimer (DNF)
Ocean Racing Technology concluded its first complete season in the GP2 Asia Series as one of the fastest yet unluckiest in the paddock. Once again Yelmer Buurman had a very fast race pace in the second round here in Bahrain, the championship season's finale, moving up six places from his thirteenth starting place on the grid to eventually cross the line knocking on the door of points.
The Dutchman gained three places at the start and was fastest of all in the second lap, taking two seconds off the leaders and putting pressure on the drivers ahead of him. But the Sakhir circuit offers very few overtaking opportunities and the intense heat also complicated his mission by increasing the wear of his tires.
Despite the intensity of the race and the high temperatures, Yelmer didn't put a foot wrong throughout the twenty race laps and chose the last possible moment to pass the winner of race one, Luca Filippi, thanks to a memorable move. "It was an excellent car for an excellent race!" Buurman said. "We clocked the fastest race lap several times in the opening stages and we've always been very competitive. I could quickly match the pace on several cars in front of me but it was difficult to overtake them, especially because the track was in poor condition in some places. I was side by side with Luca Filippi on the straight on the last lap but he resisted, but I took a chance in the last turn and surprised him."
For teammate Fabio Leimer, the race never really started and concluded a weekend to forget. The engine of the Swiss driver's single-seater had a problem on the starting grid and left him unable to play any role in the finale whatsoever. "The engine died when I was trying to reach the starting grid and there was nothing to do. It was a consequence of the incident I had in the first race on Saturday when another car hit mine in the first corner. It is frustrating because we made good progress and I wanted to prove it on the track. But that's a part of motorsport, sometimes a small incident can ruin your entire weekend," declared Leimer.
Super Nova - Josef Kral (10th) Jake Rosenzweig (17th)
Super Nova have been rewarded with a top ten finish in the final race of this year's GP2 Asia season. The whole team has worked hard to make the performance gains necessary after a disappointing feature race yesterday.
Starting from 16th position, Josef fought hard through the usual chaos seen at the beginning of GP2 Asia sprint races. He then made the most of opportunities to overtake and settled into a strong 10th position, resisting pressure from Oliver Turvey. He then managed to pull away from the iSport driver and maintained this position to the finish.
Jake produced another solid drive and once again made a gain to be closer to the pace of the leaders. He finished in 17th position and is pleased with the experience that he has gained in GP2 Asia.
Josef Kral: "The car today felt much better with a different set up and a fresh engine allowing me to be closer on straights. I had a very good start and first lap, where I got past a number of cars. After half way into the race I struggled with the balance as we haven't had time to fine tune the car with this set up. I am much happier with this race and the experience that I have gained in GP2 Asia, giving us a good platform to go into the GP2 Main Series with.
Jake Rosenzweig: "The race today was good, as I continued to build up mileage in the car. I would like to thank the Super Nova team for the opportunity to drive and the experience has been valuable to further my career."
David Sears - Team Principal: "Today saw a much better performance from the team in every aspect. Josef managed to finish in a strong 10th place, holding off a previous race winner in the process. Jake continued to learn and hopefully his experience in the GP2 Asia series will help him in the future."
Trident Racing - Dani Clos (12th) Plamen Kralev (18th)
Trident Racing brought both its racecars to checkered in the final race of the 2010 GP2 Asia Series at Al Sakhir, Bahrain. Dani Clos experienced a troublefree run, ending up in 12th, and Plamen Kralev had a positive drive, taking the 18th spot. The race itself proved to be pretty linear, as tire wear came into play and prevented drivers from attacking.
With the closure of the 2010 Asia Series, Trident Racing will be back working on the upcoming GP2 Main Series, set to debut with its first seasonal test at Paul Ricard. The collective sessions are scheduled between March 23 and 25.
Plamen Kralev: "It's been a good race, probably my best one since I decided to take part in such an extremely high-level championship like GP2. As I always said, I needed all the track time I could, in order to get a grip with the car and the tracks. Today I felt I was finally part of the pack, as I turned some good laps and even tried to push. At least a couple of cars were slower than me, and that's the feedback I was looking for. Now I definitely want to keep racing open-wheel cars, because the feeling on these racers is definitely something unique."
Dani Clos: "Our starting spot prevented us from aiming to the top, but we ended up with some positive results. Starting from the car, which was fast and great to drive. In the middle section of the track I was really fast, but on the straight I just couldn't get into the other car's slipstream so passing has been extremely difficult."