11/05/2008
NEWS STORY
ART Grand Prix - Romain Grosjean (1st) Luca Filippi (14th)
ART Grand Prix are now second in the 2008 GP2 series championship after rookie racer Romain Grosjean secured two podium finishes in last weekend's Turkish round held at the Istanbul Park Otodrom. The Frenchman, who started, fourth on the grid in race one, charged through the field to take a strong second place behind race winner Giorgio Pantano while in race two, nothing short of victory would satisfy the ART racer.
A brilliant race from seventh on the grid netted the desired result, his first win in the European series after storming to P2 off the start and defending his position on an unknown circuit against the experienced and faster Andreas Zuber.
Meanwhile, teammate Luca Filippi had a weekend to forget and could only muster 16th and 14th placed finishes. Starting from eighteenth on the grid due to issues in qualifying, he was facing an uphill battle from the start but despite setting similar times to the leaders, starting from so far down made things hard.
Luca Filippi: We did not have a good start with some problems in qualifying that prevented me from setting a time on my second set of tyres. All the others improved by one second and I was stuck with my first lap and fell down on the starting grid. In race 1, a manoeuvre triggered the engine's safety mode…
In race 2 my start was much better and I was running P10 at the end of the first lap. We had what it takes to score some points, but unfortunately I flat spotted a tyre overtaking Nunès. From then on I had vibrations and I made several mistakes. It is a shame because my rhythm was very good this weekend, the same as Pantano and Zuber in race 1 for instance.
Congratulations to Romain for his splendid win. ART Grand Prix is working really well and I hope my dream start to the championship will come in Monaco, a track that I like and where I was fast last year.
Romain Grosjean: I had to learn the Istanbul Park circuit but qualifying went rather well even though a yellow flag did not help me fight for the first row. The hardest part of the job was over when I made a great start. I then raced in defensive mode as Zuber was obviously faster than me. I had to stay focused and not even make the smallest mistake as that's all it would have taken for Zuber to get past me. The team performed a great pit stop and I could leave the pits ahead of him. Race 2 was really nice. I had a fantastic start which allowed me to gain several positions and the feeling was great inside the car because we fixed the small set-up problems we had in race 1 and I knew I was faster than the guys in front of me. The results of this weekend are very good for the team, it is a nice reward but we have to keep pushing and to start the weekend as high as we end them.
Frédéric Vasseur: Romain's weekend was nearly perfect which is all the more enjoyable as the Istanbul track is not the easiest. He improved a lot between practice and race 2 to finish on a high, his first win in the GP2 main series. This is a great achievement and all in all the review of the weekend is extremely positive. Romain was able to defend his place when needed and to push hard and overtake on Sunday. Luca had another difficult weekend and it's a shame as pace wise he was sometimes on par with the very best but our competitiveness should help him to put all the pieces together soon and to secure the results he and the team deserve.
Racing Engineering - Giorgio Pantano (4th) Javier Villa (15th)
There were mixed fortunes for the Racing Engineering drivers in today's Sprint Race as Giorgio Pantano finished a competitive fourth and continues to lead the Drivers Championship while Javier Villa was the victim of an over-optimistic passing manoeuvre.
Giorgio made a good start from eighth place on the reversed grid, picking up several places in the opening corners to move up to fifth. Javier was slightly slow away from the second spot loosing a place into the first corner but holding onto third spot.
Several drivers spun off on the first lap or had mechanical problems and the Safety Car was deployed to allow the hard working Turkish marshals to remove the stranded cars. Racing resumed on lap 4 with Javier chasing Buemi and in turn being chased by Grosjean, Giorgio and Conway but the young Spaniard quickly lost a place to Grosjean.
Lap 5 saw Javier trying to re-pass Grosjean but he was demoted to fifth by his hard-charging team mate Pantano who quickly closed the gap to Buemi. Javier lost another place to Conway on lap 8 and the Racing Engineering driver found himself in a battle with Chandhok for sixth. It all went wrong on the following lap when Chandhok, looking for a gap that wasn't there, tried diving inside Javier, the two cars made contact and Javier was pushed wide loosing several places. In trying to recover from the incident Javier spun and dropped to 17th place.
Meanwhile back at the front Giorgio was still in fourth and chasing Buemi, Conway had moved up to fifth but the Racing Engineering driver was able to keep the gap to the Trident driver to about a second.
The Safety Car was suddenly back out on lap 12 as two dogs were seen running on the track, Senna hitting one of them at high speed fortunately without injury to the Brazilian although his car was badly damaged. Racing resumed two laps later with Giorgio still chasing Buemi and although he closed in several times on the Arden car the experienced Italian decided to take things carefully and to look to adding to his points tally with a solid fourth place finish. Javier managed to move up to 15th by the chequered flag but it was not a race the Spaniard will want to remember.
Giorgio continues to head the Drivers Championship by 5 points from Grosjean while Racing Engineering is still on top of the Team Championship, the Spanish team leading ART Grand Prix by eight points. Once again both of the Repsol/Telefónica backed cars finished the race to make it eight finishes in eight starts, a 100% reliability record for Racing Engineering.
Both drivers will now be looking forward to the twists and turns of Monaco in two weeks time where the Racing Engineering cars should once again be very competitive and victory will be the aim of Giorgio and Javier.
Alfonso de Orleans Borbón (team principal): "A positive weekend overall. We are going to Monaco leading both the team and the Driver Championship, but as we all know, that track is a bit of a lottery, so let's hope we'll have another good weekend there as well. The whole team did a fantastic job and it shows in the results. I want to thank everyone, the drivers, the engineers and the mechanics for once again having both cars finish in both races this weekend. This makes us the only team having had both cars finishing all races so far. Reliability is the key along with a good set-up and fast drivers to winning a championship. Well done everyone."
Javier Villa: "It was a bit difficult today. I didn't have a good start and was third, but this was OK. But then I had some problems and it was very difficult, I wasn't able to keep up with others on the straight line.
In the last corner there was another car that caused me to spin, I lost many positions and tried to push, but there simply was a difference. We will now check things properly in order to see what the problem was.
Giorgio Pantano: "I am so happy with this weekend. I think from Friday on we have done a really good job. The team was really good and I had a great car. Scoring 15 points during this weekend is not bad at all. I hope we continue like this as we are there at the front and are definitely competing for the championship."
Trident Racing - Mike Conway (5th) Ho Pin Tung (DNF)
Trident Racing finally got the first points of the 2008 season at Istanbul. Despite the bad break suffered by Ho Pin Tung, who stalled on the grid and was forced to retire, Mike Conway handed all the team a positive performance by taking the fifth spot and ending up in the slipstream of yesterday`s winner Giorgio Pantano. Mike had a good start, and run consistently strong. He was even able to avoid one of the two dogs that suddenly made their way to the racetrack. Unfortunately, Bruno Senna was less lucky, hitting the animal and ending his day for good due to the following suspension damage. After the safety car`s interruption there were no changes in standings, and Mike was able to complete the race with no incidents. The aim of the team now focus to the next round at the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.
Mike Conway: "I had a good start this time, and I was immediately able to clinch the top-3. I`ve been even able to pull on the side of Pantano, but I preferred not to take an useless risk. The race pace was actually pretty high but, since I was able to stay in the leading pack, I managed to keep the leaders` tail. I`m glad the team finally managed to score the first points on the season, and also because I found the car to be really consistent compared to yesterday, a sign that the set-up changes we made were positive. I`m really looking forward to Monte Carlo, a race that Trident won on 2007 and where I was able to start from Row 4 despite being a rookie".
Ho Pin Tung: "After making many good starts, unfortunately I ended up stopped on the grid today. I hoped to be missed by all the cars behind me, but unfortunately Pastor Maldonado touched my left rear, forcing me to retire before even seeing the line. It`s a shame, but all we can and have to do is to focus on the upcoming Monte Carlo GP".
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Managing Director: "The first points of the season scored today at Istanbul are the prove of the good job we made until now. It is of course something that goes beyond today`s result, and includes the good pace kept today as well as the ability to stay behind the leaders easily. Mike has a lot of talent, he was really aggressive today without committing mistakes, and our technical staff is able to suit him well, despite all the unlucky situations that stopped us. We`re sorry for Ho Pin, who usually start perfectly, but this time was prevented from proving his improved potential."
DAMS - Kamui Kobayashi (9th) Jerome d'Ambrosio (24th)
Today, DAMS suffered the consequences of a tough Saturday in the 2nd GP2 Series race on the Istanbul circuit in Turkey. Kamui Kobayashi and Jerome d'Ambrosio were penalised by their poor starting positions on the grid, and although they did their best to score points they failed to make it into the top 6. The Japanese driver made an exceptional comeback to finish 9th while his Belgian team-mate retired early on.
The team did not add to the 8 points scored in Barcelona 2 weeks ago. It is currently lying 8th in the championship while Kamui is in 8th place in the driver ratings. The next round is in Monaco in 2 weeks time.
Eric Boullier, team manager: "It's been a frustrating weekend as we had all the right ingredients to score points and we leave here empty-handed. Kamui suffered from his poor qualifying on both Saturday and Sunday. Jerome could have scored points yesterday and started from a good grid position today. Unfortunately, his retirement due to a technical problem on Saturday compromised his chances in the short race. We're now going to concentrate our energy on the next round in Monaco where we hope to have more success than in Turkey."
Kamui Kobayashi: "Starting from twenty-fifth place on the grid and finishing ninth is not a bad effort, and I'm happy with my climb up through the field. But I haven't scored any points this weekend and I've fallen back in the championship. I reckon I've used up all my bad luck here, and I'm going all out not to have any more pointless weekends up to the very end. This is what it takes to be in with a chance for the title."
Jerome d'Ambrosio: "The second race of the weekend was little different from the first one as I finished it on foot! It's a pity as everything could have been different had it not been for yesterday's technical problem. We'll learn our lessons from this meeting, and we'll do our very best to turn things around in Monaco in two weeks."
DPR - Diego Nunes (10th) Giacomo Ricci (11th)
David Price Racing (DPR) took its first top ten finish of the season at Istanbul, Turkey, today, with Brazilian Diego Nunes taking 10th in the GP2 Sprint race, and his team mate Giacomo Ricci following close behind in 11th place.
For today's Sprint distance Nunes lined up in 13th, after a strong finish to his Feature race yesterday. Ricci, having retired with a parts failure was further back in 23rd place. Both DPR drivers were ready for 23 laps of fast and furious racing, and when the green flag fell there was action from the start.
Eight cars were out the race by the end of the first lap, in a number of incidents, but Nunes and Ricci were able to avoid the tussles for track position and gain from others misfortunes, while also pushing hard. Dicing through the first sequence of corners Nunes emerged from the opening lap in ninth place. Ricci moved up six places to lie 17th.
The safety car made its first appearance while the track was cleared of stranded GP2 cars littered around the track and when the field returned to full speed racing there was further action, but the DPR drivers coped with the pressure and held position. After ten laps of racing Nunes was lying in a points-paying eighth place and Ricci had moved up to 12th position.
The second deployment of the safety car was caused by a pair of dogs straying on to the race track, and after the safety car had brought the field together and the dogs had been removed, the bunched up field returned to racing.
The final ten laps continued to produce plenty of fights up and down the grid. The DPR drivers held position at the restart, both defending hard, but an aggressive move by opening round race winner Alvero Parente dropped Nunes back to ninth. Under pressure from Kobayashi, Nunes had his mirrors full of a train of cars. Nunes struggled with tyres quickly losing their grip and dropped down the order, while team mate Ricci gained a place to lie behind him as the race reached its closing stages.
Nunes finally crossed the line in 10th place, his first top ten finish of the season, and Ricci followed him home in 11th position, his best finish so far.
David Price, Team Principal, David Price Racing, said after the race, "I'm pleased that Diego finished in the top ten. There was a chance for a points finish, and I think with a little more experience he'll be able to bag a top eight spot. I don't think he's far away from finishing in the points, as he's improving each weekend. Ricci also drove well today and moved up the grid, with a good pace. Our goal is to keep improving and we've achieved that this weekend."
The next round of GP2 racing action takes place at the famed Monaco street race, one of the most popular events of the calendar. In previous seasons GP2 has only held one race during this Formula One Grand Prix, and for the first time there will be both a Feature and Sprint race at this glamorous occasion in two weeks time.
iSport Intl - Karun Chandhok (12th) Bruno Senna (DNF)
iSport's drivers could scarcely have had more contrasting fortunes during the opening moments of the third race of the GP2 Series at Istanbul Park, Turkey. While Karun Chandhok sprinted through from seventh to fourth, a position he held to the end, Bruno Senna found himself snared behind a slow-moving car. That caused his anti-stall system to kick in - and he was then hit by another car as he attempted to get up to speed. That condemned him to an unscheduled pit stop and an eventual 15th place.
Karun Chandhok: "I'm pleased with that. After our troubled weekend in Spain it is nice to score a solid points finish. I had a small upshift problem on a couple of occasions, but I was able to lap comfortably and quickly throughout. We showed definite pace and Bruno and I both set fastest laps during the middle part of the race, although I know a couple of drivers went quicker towards the end thanks to newer tyres and a lighter fuel load. This was a good showing, though, and it proves we are quick enough to challenge for victories. It's a pit Ben Hanley held me up for a couple of laps towards the end, when I was trying to lap him, but that apart it was a smooth race."
Bruno Senna: "There's not too much to say, really. Adam Carroll struggled to get off the line ahead of me and my anti-stall kicked in almost as soon as my car moved. I dropped the clutch and managed to get going properly - and I really wasn't too concerned. I knew we had the pace to recover, but then another car - one of the Arden drivers, but I'm not sure which - swept across from the outside and took off my wing. From that moment, any chance of a decent result was lost."
Fisichella Motor Sport International - Roldan Rodriguez (13th) Adam Carroll (DNF)
Fisichella Motor Sport International suffered a disappointing weekend in Istanbul, Turkey for round two of the GP2 Series when Adam Carroll retired from Sunday's sprint race after starting from pole when he endured clutch problems and Roldan Rodriguez finished both races out of the points. Adam was able to collect one point from Saturday's feature race, finishing eighth after suffering clutch problems in the closing stages of the race.
Adam made his return to Fisichella Motorsport for the Istanbul round, driving the brand new 2008 GP2 car for the first time in Friday morning free practice. The Ulsterman put in a fantastic performance in qualifying to set the third fastest time, setting himself up for a second place start in the feature race, behind Giorgio Pantano on pole and Andreas Zuber. Unfortunately, Adam was slow off the start in Saturday's race, losing five positions and falling to eighth. He maintained position throughout the 34-lap race, taking seventh from Javier Villa in the latter stages, but crossing the line in eighth after the Spaniard retook position on the
final lap with Adam suffering a problem with the clutch. Due to the reverse grid system, his eighth place finish put Adam on pole for Sunday's shorter, 23-lap race. He made a good start but lost several positions in the first complex of corners, then retired shortly after due to clutch problems.
Roldan, meanwhile, had his own tough start to the weekend after qualifying in 22nd position, putting him on the eleventh row for the feature race. He made a brilliant start, keeping out of trouble at the back and moving up to 11th by the end of the first lap. The majority of the field dashed into the pits when the safety car was deployed and, after the round of mandatory pitstops, Roldan was in 14th position. By lap 29 he had moved up two positions to 12th, and maintained that until the chequered flag. Beginning from 12th in Sunday's chaotic feature race, Roldan was able to move up to 8th on the first lap, but had fallen to 13th by lap 10 after there was contact with Villa. He briefly lost position to Luca Filippi, but retook 13th on the last lap.
Adam Carroll: 'I've really enjoyed the weekend and it's good to be back with the team, it was a real shame about today's race though because we had a cracking chance to win. The car felt good on the warm up and my initial start was very good, it's when I took second gear that the clutch just went and that was that. With yesterday's race I was disappointed with my start and really don't know why that happened. It was really important for me to do the full race distance in the new car as it's a bit different to drive, so that was a positive and we had good pace throughout the race and picked up that final point and pole for today.'
Roldan Rodriguez: 'The car has been good all weekend but it just hasn't gone our way really. Yesterday I made good progress through the field but I was hampered by my starting position and so it was hard to compete when I wasn't at the right end of the grid. Today I made good progress early on but unfortunately the contact with Villa ended my chances in what looked like a promising race.'