29/08/2009
NEWS STORY
Ocean Racing Technology - Alvaro Parente (1st) Karun Chandhok (DNF)
It was behind the wheel of one of the two single-seaters from Ocean Racing Technology that Alvaro Parente dominated from start to finish in the first race at Spa-Francorchamps this afternoon. In Belgium, the driver of the Dallara 25 secured the maiden win for the only Portuguese team in the GP2 Main Series.
Starting from when the lights went out with a strong start from pole position, Alvaro Parente did not give his rivals a chance as he slowly but surely built up a five second lead before the first appearance of the safety car. Alvaro Parente managed both safety car periods perfectly as well as the potential of his single-seater to secure a well deserved victory on a circuit that everyone classes as one of the best and most challenging on the calendar. As well as pole position and victory, the Portuguese driver added fastest lap to make it the perfect start to the weekend with the maximum haul of points,13, a total that saw him jump from 12th to 6th in the drivers championship. "Everything was perfect. We were unbeatable today as the fact that I was always faster than my rivals suggests. At some point there was oil on the track at and I slowed down a bit to avoid taking unnecessary risks. But everything else was perfect, pit stop included," Alvaro explains and tomorrow, 'Varinho' will start from eighth place of the grid, because of the reverse grid order, but that does not affect his optimism. "Our car is very fast and I will give my best to gain some positions and get the maximum points possible."
Starting from sixth on the grid, teammate Karun Chandhok carried out an early pitstop and was fighting for a points position when he lost the control of his car during an overtaking manoeuvre, forcing the Indian racer into an early retirement. "It was not my lucky day and I have mixed feelings. We have to analyze what happened because we lost quite a chunk of performance since yesterday. Also, my DNF will make life harder in the second race. Congratulations to Alvaro and to the team for this first victory."
With its first victory in the GP2 Main Series, Ocean Racing Technology moves from 7th to 5th position in the team's championship and Tiago Monteiro and Jose Guedes are very pleased with this confirmation of their team's potential. "All the members of the team, from the drivers to the engineers and the mechanics worked hard to get this win. This is a fantastic achievement for our first year in the championship where we have reached a great level of performance," underlined the Ocean Racing Technology directors.
Fat Burner Racing Engineering - Lucas Di Grassi (3rd) Dani Clos (10th)
Eventful GP2 race today at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit where both Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers, Lucas Di Grassi and Dani Clos, managed to keep out of trouble to finish in third and tenth place.
The start of the feature race had to wait a little longer than expected after Dani's car stalled on the grid. After the formation lap, the field had to complete yet another formation lap when Perez' car went slowly on the start/finish line. Dani's little gremlin meant he had to be pushed back into the pit lane and start from there in what would be a race full of incidents. Lucas, on the other had, was well placed on his fifth slot on the grid, ready to put up a good fight.
The race started with Lucas gaining a place at the first corner and quickly passing Nunes into third behind Parente and Hülkenberg. The Brazilian driver pushed the German to the limit during the first few laps, but was not able to pass him. By the end of the 8th lap, Lucas made his mandatory pit stop and what looked like a good opportunity for him to improve his position, soon became a fight against Maldonado, who ran in fourth. Lucas was able to fight off the Venezuelan's attacks and continued in third position. Then, with two laps left, the safety car was deployed after a heavy crash suffered by Coletti. The race finished under safety car and Lucas crossed the line scoring another podium for the Fat Burner Engineering Team.
Spaniard Dani Clos saw his hopes going up in smoke at the very beginning when his car stalled on the grid. Nevertheless, the rookie did all he could to better his position, and after his pit-stop, returned to the track in 12th place, just behind Filippi, Valsecchi and D'Ambrosio. The Italian duo had a nice fight in front of the Fat Burner Racing Engineering driver, but this soon ended in drama when their cars collided. However, this meant that Dani gained another two positions and the safety car was deployed again. When the race restarted, Dani was close to D'Ambrosio, ready to overtake the Belgian, but all of the sudden found D'Ambrosio slowing down in front of him and in order to avoid crashing into him, went wide. This meant that Dani lost three positions, but quickly, the Fat Burner Racing Engineering driver overtook Panciatici for 12th, and a few laps later, he was promoted to 11th when D'Ambrosio was forced to retire to the pits. Coletti's nasty accident close to the end of the race put Dani up into 10th place.
However, after the race, Dani was handed a 25 seconds penalty for having improved one of his sector times while yellow flags were being waved. This means Dani drops back to 11th position.
Lucas Di Grassi: I had a good start and good first lap. The car behaved very well during the first half of the race. Then we lost a bit of performance and I had to fight with Maldonado. We scored good points and I am happy for my team as well. Now I am third in the championship and close to Petrov. Tomorrow I hope to score more points.
Dani Clos: Things were looking good until the first gear wouldn't select at the pre-start. My engine was on and everything worked, but no 1st. I had to start from the pits, being pushed by the mechanics to insert the gear. During the race it's been quite chaotic. I overtook several drivers and was able to avoid some nasty looking accidents. I got up to tenth and after the safety car I was right behind d'Ambrosio and at one point in turn 10, an almost flat out corner, he made a really dirty move by braking in the middle of the corner. To avoid crashing into him and hurt myself badly, I was forced to go wide and lost some positions. After that, I tried to minimize the loss and continued fighting my way back into 10th position.
Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon, Team President: Excellent job from everyone. Good pit stops. It's a pity about Dani's race. But we should be able to have a good race tomorrow, having both drivers in the top ten. I would also like to take advantage and wish all the best to the Trident mechanic (who had an accident in the pit-lane before the start of the race) and hope he recovers quickly.
iSport International - Giedo van der Garde (6th) Diego Nunes (9th)
iSport continued their momentum to take a handful of points in the feature race at the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit despite a delayed start, an aborted start and two safety cars.
iSport racer Diego Nunes was gifted third place on the grid after Lucas Di Grassi was handed a grid penalty after yesterday's qualifying session. Nunes started well but lost out behind the slower starting Alvaro Parente loosing position. Despite the chaos Nunes kept his cool to finish fifth. A close shave with his team mate Giedo van der Garde in which the two narrowly missed each other causing Nunes to cut the chicane to avoid an accident later resulted in Nunes being slapped with a 25 second penalty which leaves him outside of the points in a disappointing eleventh.
Giedo van der Garde stormed away off the start from twelfth up to eighth on the first lap as others crashed out around him. Two great moves on Kamui Kobayashi and Karun Chandhok put the iSport racer up to sixth but Van der Garde lost out to Roldan Rodriquez with a few laps to go after Van der Garde came close to colliding with his team mate. With the race finishing under the safety car Van der Garde took the flag in seventh which later moved up to sixth to take two points and third on the grid for tomorrow's sprint race.
Diego Nunes: "I had a small problem with the car. We were not that quick in the second sector. We tried to fix the rear a lot for the race and eventually we had too much understeer. The car is still good enough to finish top five but the problem now is I had to go to stewards as they want to penalise me again because of my incident with Giedo. I cut the chicane to avoid the crash, maybe I don't know but everytime I go there they penalise me".
Giedo van der Garde: "In the race I was very quick in the beginning. I passed a few people. I got close to Diego towards the end of the race and I went to pass him. When I passed him he went straight at the chicane so the guy behind me got by me. My fifth gear went for the last five or six laps so he passed me and I finished seventh but I have a front row start for the sprint race so we have a great chance for a podium".
Durango - Nelson Panciatici (11th) Stefano Coletti (12th)
Two laps before the end of a very hard Spa race 1, Stefano Coletti was trying to catch the eighth position, which means the pole position for tomorrow race 2, when he lost the control of his Durango at the Eau Rouge, crashing heavily in the Radillon external barriers. Nelson Panciatici was and remained good eleventh. Stefano suffered some bruises but tomorrow he will not be able to take the start just because his car monocoque cannot be repaired. It is a real pity because Stefano, who had to take the start from the pitlane not because of his responsibility, made an outstanding recovery.
Ivone Pinton declared: "Stefano was clearly demonstrating that he can be very fast, just at his second GP2 event, and Nelson was showing his growth as well. With less than two laps to go we were taking home a very good result, but it went for wrong. Anyway the most important thing is that Stefano is alright. Tomorrow we will race with just one car but I am confident that Nelson will deliver a good job".