12/02/2009
NEWS STORY
DAMS - Kamui Kobayashi (4th) Jerome d'Ambrosio (10th)
This weekend DAMS arrived in Qatar for the fourth round of the Asian GP2 Series in first place in both the drivers' and teams' championships. Kamui Kobayashi leads the drivers' with 34 points while Jerome d'Ambrosio is lying fourth. After 3 rounds, DAMS has more than double the number of points of its closest rival in the teams' ratings. The organisers decided to spice up the proceedings for this meeting in the Middle East with nighttime practice - a first for GP2!
After free practice, which was run in very slippery conditions as a sand storm struck the track yesterday, the DAMS drivers came out of qualifying well placed. Kamui and Jerome really went for it at the restart of the session stopped 3 minutes before the end, and set the fourth and tenth-quickest times respectively.
Eric Boullier, team manager: "Like all our rivals we were surprised by the state of the track at the start of free practice. The sand made the circuit very slippery, and even if other series gave it a sweep the conditions were not what we'd been expecting. We made provision for this situation when we were deciding our set-up for qualifying. Taking the circumstances into account, as the drivers had only one flying lap to set their times, we're pretty happy with the result. Our aim is to consolidate our positions in both championships and we've got off to a good start to achieve that."
Kamui Kobayashi: "The day's been pretty good overall. Free practice didn't go off as well for us as we'd expected because the track was very slippery. It was better in qualifying. I'm starting from the second row tomorrow and I can aim for a rostrum finish -why not victory? - which will help me extend my lead in the championship. That's my aim for the coming weekend."
Jerome d'Ambrosio: "Tenth place isn't ideal and I was hoping for better things, but conditions were very tricky . This starting position should enable me to finish in the points tomorrow and start from the front for the short race. I'm only five points behind the third-placed driver and seven behind the second. My aim's to catch and overtake them as soon as possible!"
Durango - Davide Valsecchi (8th) Michael Dalle Stelle (25th)
Quite a disappointing first night in Qatar for Durango. With just three minutes and a half to go Davide Valsecchi was the polesitter, and was improving his performance when a red flag stopped the session. At the restart both team and driver lost the momentum, the result being the eight position.
Ivone Pinton declared: "I am angry, I don't hide it, we got the situation in our hand but we finished eight. Now we all have to chill out and reset all things because tomorrow evening we absolutely have to do a nice figure".
Ocean Racing Team - Fabrizio Crestani (15th) Yelmer Buurman (23rd)
Yelmer Buurman and Fabrizio Crestani knew how to benefit from their first set of tyres in order to put themselves up among the top ten fastest drivers at the beginning of the qualifying session for the first race in Qatar for the GP2 Asia Series.
However, traffic hampered both drivers from the Ocean Racing Technology team when they had their second run with Yelmer Buurman once again the victim of a mechanical gremlin which left him down in 23rd place on the starting grid. As for Fabrizio Crestani, he secured the 15th best time but, the result could have definitely been better: "I was very happy with my lap times on my first set of tyres but things got complicated with the second. I just could not find a clean lap and the temperature of my tyres went down, which made the competitiveness of my car go down as well. But I feel I'm improving in all areas and the team is certain that our places should have been much higher on the grid," the Italian said.
Less satisfied, Yelmer Buurman will be once again be forced to make up ground from the back of the field: "Qualifying did not go the way we wanted it to. I had a lot of traffic then the fuel pump let me down and there was nothing I could do! It is frustrating because I secured the 7th best lap time in free practice and I even climbed up to 4th. But I won't give up, I will fight hard to try and gain as many positions as I can in the feature race," said Buurman.
Trident Racing - Davide Rigon (20th) Frankie Provenzano (24th)
The GP2 Asia Series field faced their first night experience ever at Losail, Qatar. Under artificial light, Practice and Qualifying showed the crowd a new perspective, providing an unusual environment and offering drivers a brand-new challenge. Rookie Davide Rigon ended his first GP2 Series session in 14th place, while team-mate Frankie Provenzano took the 23rd spot. In Qualifying, the Italian rounded out the top-20, while Provenzano ended up 4 spots adrift in 24th. Both drivers, as well as Trident Racing's crew are now fully focused on recovering the lost ground, and strike back during the first race of the weekend, starting at 7 PM local time. Eurosport will be providing live coverage from Race 1, while Sunday's race 2 will be broadcasted tape-delayed at 2 PM.
Frankie Provenzano: "We didn't match the results we were expecting, and we're now analyzing all the data we have in order to be back rolling tomorrow. I really liked the racetrack that, despite a dirty appearance, proved to have strong grip levels. We now need to come back and try to get as further as possible".
Davide Rigon: "Surely it's been an intense day. I got positive vibes by the immediate feeling with the racetrack, which I really liked a lot. Both the faster and the slower sections are really nice to drive, and the asphalt proved to have a good grip despite the dirt due to sand. On the other hand, especially in Qualifying, we did expect more in terms of pure performance, and I think we also paid the price of a fading engine. I noticed I really struggled to keep drafting the cars I had in front, while I kept getting slipstream-passed with ease. The car seemed quite good overall, and I managed to build a strong relation with the whole team. I hope to climb back on tomorrow's Race 1".