12/03/2010
NEWS STORY
Trident Racing - Dani Clos (13th) Plamen Kralev (24th)
The final round of the third GP2 Asia Series season got underway today at the Al Sakhir racetrack with practice and qualifying. Teams and drivers were back to the Bahrain track just two weeks after the latest round of the championship, as a support for the opening round of the Formula One World Championship, which features an upgraded circuit layout. Trident Racing joined the pack with Dani Clos and Plamen Kralev, ending the day with a 13th and a 24th place.
The session has been intense, and time gaps proved high competition despite the longer layout. Weather forecast for tomorrow anticipate high temperatures: drivers will be called to manage their tires as well as their body.
Dani Clos: "I'm happy about my potential as well as the car's. Unfortunately, a quite disturbed session took its toll on the final result. With the first set of new tires I had just one clean lap, with no car to pass. With the second one I faced a lot of traffic. When I took off for my flying lap, I made a mistake by hitting a kerb a little too hard, and lost valuable tenths.
"Compared to Abu Dhabi, I found the car faster in qualifying. I'm also looking forward to tomorrow's race, since the Trident Racing car has been really consistent in the second half, when tire management gets into the mix. I hope to make a good start, and clinch a points finish."
Plamen Kralev: "I hoped to be closer to the rest of the pack and, as happened before, I couldn't get to the limit during qualifying. I would need more time, but that are the rules, and I have to adapt. I made a mistake, and ended up spinning, but luckily enough the engine kept running. I hope to get to the end tomorrow, in a race that I expect to be extremely demanding."
Super Nova - Josef Kral (20th) Jake Rosenzweig (23rd)
Today's Qualifying session for the final round of the 2010 GP2 Asia Championship saw the drivers having to adapt to the changes made to the circuit. It was evident from the practice session that the new section was very challenging, with a number of bumps unsettling the cars.
After a low key practice session the Super Nova team made some changes to improve the car over the bumps for Qualifying. With cooler temperatures and more Formula One rubber, the track was quicker and the times reflected this as many drivers improved their times from practice by a significant margin.
Josef felt more comfortable with the car and pushed hard on the first set of tyres but unfortunately could not match the quickest cars. On his second set, after some minor tweaks to the car, he improved on his sector times but then had a spin after setting his best first sector.
Jake continued to improve and found a lot of time on his second set of tyres to end the session only half a second behind his team mate.
Josef Kral: "I was pushing as hard as I could and attacking the bumps on the new part of the circuit. The car felt good but I just couldn't match the quickest times no matter how hard I tried. I even had a spin towards the end of qualifying from pushing too hard. I plan to overtake as much as possible in the race tomorrow."
Jake Rosenzweig: "I have had another challenge this weekend with the new circuit layout and I continue my steep learning curve, especially with maximizing my new tyres. I hope that we will be closer to the pace in the race tomorrow."
David Sears - Team Principal: "Another difficult qualifying session for Super Nova with both drivers still on a steep learning curve. Ironically Luca Filippi, one of Super Nova's drivers from last year, is starting in pole position. Unfortunately Josef and Jake will be starting towards the wrong end of the grid and we will have our work cut out to achieve decent results tomorrow."