31/07/2010
NEWS STORY
Racing Engineering - Christian Vietoris (2nd) Dani Clos (16th)
Racing Engineering's Christian Vietoris was finally able to show all his potential and achieved a magnificent second place in the GP2 feature race at the Hungaroring. The young German kept his cool from start to finish which resulted in his first GP2 podium. Dani Clos saw his race affected by the troubles of Bianchi spinning into him at turn 3 on the opening lap. Problems during the pit stop didn't help the Spaniard's race, where he finished in sixteenth place.
When the GP2 field started its formation lap, Valsecchi stalled on the grid and was taken to the pits. With the second position empty now, the other cars were lined up to start the race. But this time it was Zaugg who suffered from a problem and start one was aborted. After another lap on the Hungaroring and everyone was ready for the lights to go green, but this time it was pole-sitter Bird who stalled and was pushed into the pitlane. At the third start attempt, the field made it off the grid. Christian Vietoris, who already won two positions due to the problems suffered by Bird and Valsecchi, had a fantastic start and passed Turvey while still on the main straight. Christian made it safely through the tricky first corners and was running in second position, behind championship leader Maldonado.
Team mate Dani Clos was not so lucky. When Bianchi went off coming out of turn 1, the Frenchman lost control of his car and hit the rear of the Racing Engineering car, damaging the gearbox. Tung and Gonzalez were also victims of the Frenchman's mistake. While Dani was able to continue, the other three were stopped on track and the safety car was deployed. Shortly after, the race was red flagged.
At the restart, behind the safety car, Maldonado kept his lead, followed by Christian Vietoris. The German in the Racing Engineering car was doing competitive lap times, matching those of the leader, while Dani was running in tenth position. At the end of lap six, Dani Clos came in for fresh tyres. The pit stop itself went smoothly, but troubles resulted in a stalled engine and precious time lost. The Spaniard rejoined the race in twenty first position and finished in sixteenth place. By then, Christian had Perez in third closing in on him and went into the pits at the end of the ninth lap in second position. Once all the drivers have done their compulsory pit stop, Maldonado continued in the lead with Christian in second. The German matched Maldonado's lap times and had Perez under control behind him. When Valerio and Razia collided on lap 26, the safety car was deployed again. At the restart, just two laps later, Arabadzhiev, who was lapped, was between Maldonado and Christian Vietoris, holding up the German. This meant that Christian could not follow the leader and all of the sudden saw himself under attack from Perez. Christian masterly defended his position from the Mexican, who tried to pass the Racing Engineering driver at turn 1 on two occasions. Missing his braking point both times, it almost resulted in the Mexican crashing into the back of Christian Vietoris at his second attempt.
However, Racing Engineering's Christian Vietoris finished a fantastic race in second position, and had his first GP2 podium. Many times Christian was so close to shining this season, so finally a bit of luck made it happen and left no doubt that he is a driver to watch out for during this second half of the season. For tomorrow's race, the reverse grid rule means that he will start on the clean side of the track from seventh, whilst Dani will do so from sixteenth.
Christian Vietoris: "I won two positions at the start due to the problems of Valsecchi and Bird. My start was good then and I passed Turvey. Then the race was red flagged and I kept my position at the restart. I was in second place all race long. We had a good pit stop and I was able to keep everything under control after. Towards the end I had to defend my position from Perez as I think I pushed too much during the half way point of the race, stressing my tyres too much. The safety car towards close to the final laps of the race was a bit disturbing, but in the end everything was fine. Today we were finally able to show what we are capable of."
Dani Clos: "It's a shame that I suffered from Bianchi's problems at the start, but I was lucky to be able to continue the race as the impact could have been quite hard. After the safety car I was doing quite well and the strategy was to have an early pit stop. We had a problem at the pit stop and my race was pretty much finished there. The only positive thing is that we brought the car back home and nothing happened. Now we have to look towards Spa."
Alfonso De Orleans-Borbon, President of Racing Engineering: "Absolutely brilliant drive from Christian. Even though he didn't win today, he showed what great driver he is. It's a pity about Dani, but Bianchi's early off damaged Dani's gearbox and the remainder of the race was tough for him. Once again, everyone did a wonderful job, although we have work to do to get ready for tomorrow.
Super Nova - Marcus Ericsson (12th) Luca Filippi (14th)
An incident packed race this afternoon saw both Super Nova drivers gain places from their qualifying positions. After two aborted starts, where both cars on the front row had problems, the race got underway - only to be red flagged following an incident involving three cars on the opening lap. The race was then re-started the team opted to bring both Marcus and Luca in for early pit stops, since it is a difficult track to overtake on and gains can be made in clean air. Unfortunately a number of other cars followed the same strategy so the Super Nova cars failed to make any gains. Luca followed Marcus for most of the race but with apparently quicker cars than those in front, they couldn't take advantage of this pace. Luca then lost a place in the final laps to a recovering Sam Bird who had started on pole position.
Marcus Ericsson: "I made a really good start and overtook some cars but then on the exit of the first corner Bianchi spun in front of me, causing me to brake hard in avoidance and I lost the places that I had gained. We had an early pit stop to try to get into clean air but the car in front of me and I caught a slower car that was making a late stop. This slowed us up for some laps and unfortunately allowed Razia and Valsecchi to jump ahead. We tried some different things with the set-up today, so we have learnt something from that but we need to improve our qualifying performance to give us a better chance in the race."
Luca Filippi: "I had a pretty good start and then we made an early stop, as I felt my pace was better than the cars in front. Unfortunately many of the cars around us had the same thinking, so after the pit stops we were still battling with the same drivers. Again I felt that our pace was good but not enough to be able to overtake on this track. So I settled into a rhythm and waited for any mistakes but they didn't come and I finished in P14. We will have to make a good start and opening laps tomorrow to try to pick up some points."
David Sears - Team Principal: "I have to say that I am pleased that both Super Nova drivers stayed out of trouble during all of the problems at the start and therefore made gains from their grid positions. After the pit stops Marcus ended up directly in front of Luca and neither driver had a significant enough pace advantage to challenge the cars in front. As usual, in Hungary, there were few position changes but Luca unfortunately lost one place at the end to Sam Bird, who had fresh tyres after a late pit stop. I think that we need to focus on our qualifying pace in order to pick up regular points positions and the whole team will work hard to achieve this."