09/05/2008
NEWS STORY
Racing Engineering - Giorgio Pantano (Pole) Javier Villa (8th)
Racing Engineering's new driver, Italian Giorgio Pantano, showed in qualifying today just how quickly he and the Racing Engineering team have adapted to each other with a superb display to take pole position for tomorrow's Feature Race. To further emphasise just how competitive the Racing Engineering Repsol/Telefónica supported Dallaras are Javier Villa set a time good enough for eighth place, the best qualifying position the young Spaniard has achieved so far in GP2.
The pair of Racing Engineering cars were on the pace from the start for today's practice and qualifying at the Istanbul circuit with both drivers looking to finding the best possible set up for their cars in this morning's practice session. Giorgio was quick from the onset using his experience to ensure he got the maximum from his car and he was soon at the top of the timing sheets. Working with the Racing Engineering team to optimise his car he eventually set a time of 1m 33.815s, quickest in all three sectors of the track. The Italian was the only driver of the 26 that practised to lap in the 1m 33s bracket.
Javier was also on the pace as he too looked to get the best from his car and at the end of the session he finished ninth with a time of 1m 34.986, one of nine drivers within less than a second of the second fastest car.
With both drivers happy that their cars were very competitive they were looking forward to qualification, confident that they could be amongst, if not head, the very quickest.
For Giorgio, qualification was simply a case of continuing the great work that he and the team had achieved in practice and he didn't disappoint dominating the session to take pole position in a time of 1m 32.659s. Giorgio's quickest lap was a quarter of a second faster than the next quickest, quite a big margin in the very competitive world of GP2 racing.
Javier showed that both the Racing Engineering Dallaras are fully competitive by setting a time of 1m 33.813s, only 0.9s away from the second fastest car, to take his best-ever qualifying position of eighth.
The two points awarded for pole position mean that Giorgio is now equal first in the Drivers Championship while Racing Engineering now leads the Team Championship.
With both drivers starting tomorrow's race so high on the grid their chances are excellent and both will be aiming for a podium place and a win is a very real possibility.
Alfonso de Orleans Borbón (team principal): "Well I think it was very, very good. Considering it is Javier's best qualification to date and he has been able to get on the podium coming from further back so I see no reason why he is not on the podium tomorrow.
Well Giorgio, it was a fantastic pole position and it raises us into first in the Team Championship so that makes us very happy and he is co-leading the Drivers Championship so we are pretty much first in everything. Let's hope we carry that through tomorrow. As for the boys, the whole team did a lot of hard work after Barcelona to get the cars ready, they have done a fantastic job and first of all I want to congratulate all of the boys and of course Cristina, the only girl in the technical crew."
Javier Villa: "Eighth position is not too bad. I had no problems with the car, everything is fine and I liked it a lot. We need to work a little bit on the setup for tomorrow as it will be a long race for everybody but I am feeling happy and confident. It is really important for the team that Giorgio took the pole and everybody will be pushing hard."
Giorgio Pantano: For me it was perfect and we did the job. I was feeling from this morning that the car was very good. I was feeling OK with the car, the circuit the tyres, everything and we did the job because everything was there. The engineers, the mechanics did their job, we've improved the car from Barcelona and now we see the difference. Now we are on pole, we are on the top. Tomorrow it will be hard for the race but I believe we can do the job."
iSport International - Bruno Senna (5th)
Joint leader of the GP2 Series ahead of this weekend's third race of the campaign, at Istanbul Park, Turkey, Bruno Senna qualified his iSport Dallara fifth for tomorrow's feature event – 16 places ahead of fellow pace-setter Alvaro Parente. The Brazilian's performance did not, however, reflect his true speed. It was a messy session, punctuated by off-track incidents and yellow flags, and Senna was consistently thwarted as he sought to extract the most from his car. There will be more to come, he promises, in the 34-lap race.
Bruno Senna: "I suspect most drivers are saying the same thing – traffic was simply horrendous throughout today's session and getting a clear, clean lap felt almost impossible. The car basically felt good, although I still need to study the telemetry before we decide what changes, if any, we should make before the start. I would obviously prefer to be a little further forward, to avoid any of the potential pitfalls at the first corner, but our tyres looked in good shape at the end of today's session and that's always a promising sign. I'm confident we have a very good car for the race."
DAMS - Jerome d'Ambrosio (11th) Kamui Kobayashi (22nd)
Today, DAMS took part in free practice and qualifying for the second round of the 2008 GP2 Championship on the Istanbul circuit in Turkey. Kamui Kobayashi and Jerome d'Ambrosio used the morning session to learn the track and set up their cars posting the 10th and 16th times respectively. Qualifying looked promising but Lady Luck did not smile on the team. Kamui spun at the start of the session while Jerome had to lift on due to yellow flags when he looked on target for the 6th quickest time overall.
Jerome and Kamui will start from 11th and 22nd positions tomorrow; a rather frustrating result but the team's morale is good. DAMS's 8 points gives it in 6th place in the teams' classification while Kamui is lying 4th in the drivers' rating, only 3 points behind the leader.
Eric Boullier, team manager: "We're all a bit disappointed this evening as Kamui was aiming for the top six in qualifying and unfortunately his off dashed his hopes. Jerome was on the pace at the end of the session and his opening sector times on his final flying lap indicated that he was on track for sixth place. An accident brought out the yellow flags and he had to lift off. It'll be difficult to get onto the rostrum tomorrow but our aim is the same as in Barcelona two weeks ago: score points in the long race and get a good place on the grid for the short event."
Kamui Kobayashi: "I don't understand what happened; I used the same line; I arrived at the same speed; I braked in the same way as in free practice as I came into the first corner; I lost control of the car and I spun. The engine didn't stall and I tried to get going again. It was impossible and I had to give up. I'm disappointed, but it's possible to pass here and I hope I can carve my way up through the field into the points tomorrow."
Jerome d'Ambrosio: "I'm fairly satisfied even though it would have been possible to move up several positions if my lap hadn't been interrupted. The circuit's really great and corner no.8 is very hard on the arms! I'm just three places outside the points so I can aim for the first eight tomorrow, and that's what I'll do."
Super Nova - Andy Soucek (14th) Alvaro Parente 21st
The morning's un-timed session took place under overcast conditions, with Alvaro Parente & Andy Soucek, the teams' temporary driver replacement for Christian Bakkerud, looking quick around this undulating track. Earlier rain had dried out by qualifying at 1600hrs, but for the team it did not go according to plan. 23 year old Alvaro completed only 4 laps before he spun off. The Portuguese sadly watched from the sidelines, as drivers improved on their times, knocking him down to P21 for Saturday's race.
Andy Soucek took no time getting to grips with Super Nova's #7 car, setting fifth quickest time on his first set of tyres. Unfortunately his second outing was marred getting held up in traffic. Unable to improve his lap, the 22 year will start 14th on the grid for tomorrow.
The more experienced drivers amongst them benefited today from track knowledge with Giorgio Pantano quickest with Racing Engineering, Andreas Zuber P2 (Piquet Sports) and Adam Carroll P3 (Fisichella Motor Sport International).
Team Principal David Sears: "Circuit knowledge is extremely important here, as proved by Super Nova's 2005 drivers, Giorgio Pantano & Adam Carroll, who were both very quick here today. After the pre qualifying practice it looked like both our drivers were capable of qualifying in the top eight. Alvaro was looking good on his first set of tyres, but spun off, stalled & took no further part in the session, so he will start from 21st, which is not good for his championship aspirations.
Andy Soucek did a super job, in his first outing with the team and we are confident he can improve his 14th qualifying position during the race tomorrow. The biggest variable factor will be the weather here. As Britain and central Europe bask in warm sunshine, rain and cooler weather is forecasted for Turkey."
Alvaro Parente: "I only did one flying lap in qualifying and then I made a mistake and spun off. The anti-stall did not kick in, so it was over for me. For sure starting from 21st will be tough, but I will try and avoid any mid field confusion and pass as many people as I can!"
Andy Soucek: "I didn't do as well I expected. It's been a long time since I last drove, but free practice was very positive, and I was looking forward to qualifying. I was P5 on my first set of tyres, & thought I would definitely improve by 3-4 tenths on my second set. As it happened I got stuck in traffic, and made a few little mistakes which is a real shame. However I've shown I have the speed so I'm confident for tomorrow's race."
Trident Racing - Mike Conway (15th) Ho Pin Tung (19th)
The weekend of Trident Racing at Istanbul encountered a rough start. At the end of an eventful qualifying session, Mike Conway took the 15th position, while Ho Pin Tung ended up 4 positions adrift in 19th. The 30-minute session was marred by several yellow flags that turned the research of the right time for a flyer into a true lottery. The main problem was to be able to start pushing with tires at the right temperature. The team had a tough job after the initial practice session, developing the new set-up solutions used in qualifying, and the same will be done before tomorrow`s Race 1, starting at 15:00 on a 34-lap distance.
Ho Pin Tung: "This morning`s free practice session was pretty troubled for us, but the set-up improvements we made definitely changed the handling of our car. In qualifying i had a better feeling and, honestly, I can`t explain myself why the laptimes were higher than I imagined. I lost a couple of tenths in my fastest lap, and several yellow flags forced me to slow down at any time. We`re gonna make further investigations with our engineers".
Mike Conway: "We made changes on the car`s set-up after the practice session held this morning, but in qualifying the situation didn`t improve much with the first set of tires. The engineers then made further changes, allowing me to improving my times in all the sectors. In my fastest lap I lost approximately 3 tenths of a second, and that`s a shame because I would have made it to the top-10. Of course, today`s one ain`t the kind of result able to satisfy both me and the team, but we`re gonna work hard to reverse the situation".