01/08/2010
NEWS STORY
Racing Engineering - Christian Vietoris (2nd) Dani Clos (7th)
Racing Engineering had another successful day at the Hungaroring where Christian Vietoris finished GP2's sprint race in second position. After a strong race, the young German made it onto the podium for a second time this weekend and scored important points in the championship standings. Dani Clos, who started from sixteenth position, was always on the attack, and was able to finish seventh.
Sunny and with temperatures around 26 degrees welcomed the GP2 field today at the Hungaroring. Like yesterday, there were problems on the pre-grid, when Herck, who started from second, stalled his engine. At the start, Christian Vietoris, who started the race in seventh position, managed to launch his car like a rocket, reaching third place on the main straight. He chose to be cautious on the brakes heading into turn 1, and established himself in third after passing the two Addax cars in the following corner. On the second lap, Perez spun off the track and Dani Clos took advantage of the melee to climb up to eleventh place. Making up another place, Dani was behind Maldonado, who had a damaged front wing after colliding with the Mexican. The enezuelan, who is the championship leader, ignored warnings to come into the pits for repairs. Neither respecting the the black and orange flag, nor letting the other cars behind him pass, Maldonado was subsequently black flagged and Dani moved up another position.
At that point, Christian Vietoris was stuck behind d'Ambrosio, who was losing distance to Ricci. On the eleventh lap, the Belgian had a puff of white smoke coming from the rear of his Dallara at turn 1, and retired to the pits at the end of the lap. Christian Vietoris climbed into second position and maintained it until the end of the race after choosing to administer his advantage over the third placed driver. Dani Clos, always pushing, finished the race in a meritorious seventh position, having recovered nine places on the twisted Hungarian track. However, the young Spaniard was just one position short of scoring points.
Christian Vietoris, on the other hand, scored 13 precious points, making it two times onto the podium during the weekend at the Hungaroring, a circuit he never ever race on before.The GP2 field starts its summer break now and the next round will be taking place at the mythical Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium from the 27th to the 29th of August.
Christian Vietoris: "I had a very good start and was able to pass several cars. I was already fifth into turn one and then overtook the two Addax cars on the outside at the following turn. I was in third and had my race under control. Running behind d'Ambrosio I knew that he stressed his tyres a lot at the beginning and I waited for a mistake from him. But the problem of getting by him solved itself. I wasn't able go for fastest lap, but the car was good and consistent thoughout the race. Only during the last few laps we lost some grip at the rear, but I guess this was the same for everyone. I would also like to thank the team for this great weekend and hope we continue the same way in Spa."
Dani Clos: "I had a good start and was able to gain a couple of positions. After things settled down a bit, I tried to put the guys in front of me under some pressure as overtaking is really hard at this track. Then I found Maldonado in front of me who had a broken front wing. I lost some time to Filippi because of behind Maldonado, who didn't go into the pits or neither let us pass. Then, I tried to push for the fast lap, but it was too hot today. I would like to thank the team as I had a really good car today. Now I am looking forward to Spa."
Alfonso De Orleans-Borbon, President of Racing Engineering: "I am extremely happy with both drivers. Now that Dani had a working gearbox, he could show what he was capable of. Although he scored no points today, he proved what a talented driver he is. As for Chris, he was in front the whole weekend and I think we're going to have a great second half of the season with him. Well done to all the boys in the team. They've done a great job all weekend long."
Trident Racing - Adrian Zaugg (8th) Johnny Cecotto (13th)
Trident Racing managed to take both cars to the end in Race 2 of the 7th GP2 Main Series Round of the year, as both Adrian Zaugg and Johnny Cecotto Jr. could successfully see the checkered flag at Budapest.
No mistake came by the drivers, as they improved their positions from the start and completed a good comeback thanks to a really strong pace. Ad the GP2 Main Series approaches its summer break, three weeks are left before landing at Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian track is set to revive action on the final weekend of August.
Adrian Zaugg: "Today's race has been pretty linear. I had a good start, and then I lapped on the same times as the cars I had in front. I did not lose time, and even had a good chance to improve my position without taking any risk. One pass stood out though, ad I moved on one of the Arden cars on the outside of turn 2. The car's performance has been better than yesterday, and that's a proof of the great job done."
Johnny Cecotto Jr: "My start has been good. At the first corner it's been a real mess, but I came out of it in one piece, like on turn 2. Once again, I had Arabadzhiev and Gonzalez in front of me. Two laps later I moved on Arabadzhiev, but Gonzalez kept closing the door as I lost a lot of time. When I finally made my way through, my laptimes improved, but with 7 laps to go I made a mistake, ending up off-line and collecting a lot of debris. At that point, the car became so twitchy that I decided to just cruise through the finish."
Ocean Racing Technology - Fabio Leimer (11th) Max Chilton (16th)
With 20 drivers all within one second, qualifying at the Hungarian round of the GP2 Main Series Championship was the most competitive of the season so far. Ocean Racing Technology showed a good pace but its drivers, Fabio Leimer and Max Chilton, were unable to get a clean lap on the tight and twisty Hungaroring circuit. When they did succeed in getting out of the traffic, their tyres were too worn to even hope for a top 10 grid position.
Despite everything, Fabio Leimer was just 85 hundredths off pole position time, but the Swiss racer only recorded the 18th best time of the qualifying session, which underlines the extreme competitiveness of the GP2 Main Series.
In the race itself, the twisty track was true to its reputation by not allowing any overtaking manoeuvres, but sector times from the Ocean Racing Technology duo showed that they had the potential to enter the top ten. Unfortunately, Max Chilton could gain only six places to finish in 17th position.
On his behalf, Fabio Leimer was a victim of a hydraulic breakdown, but his 11th place in the second race gives somewhat of an idea to the quality of his driving and the hard work of Ocean Racing Technology.
"The weekend ended rather well for me. It was a hard race because I had been stuck behind slower cars and it was difficult to get through," explained Leimer, "But we're on the right path and the progresses are significant. Unfortunately, qualifying did not go well and it compromised the final results. We are competitive just like the second race showed, we just miss a tad of luck in qualifying."
Meanwhile, Max Chilton crossed the finish line in 16th position but the Englishman knows that the result does not reflect the team's true potential.
"Starting from the last row does not help at the Hungaroring and it's the guarantee that you have to cope with a difficult race," assured Chilton, "It's been hard gaining positions and from mid-race on tyre wear forced me to take care of my package if I wanted to see the chequered flag. But the car was competitive and I'm sure with a decent qualifying we would have been up there with the front runners. I'm looking forward to race in Spa which is a circuit that I like very much and where, I hope, we will gather together all the pieces of the puzzle in order to be competitive."
Scuderia Coloni - Alberto Valerio (12th) Vladimir Arabadzhiev (14th)
Scuderia Coloni's weekend in Budapest had a good ending. In the second GP2 race the Italian team's cars crossed the line in 12th and 14th place, boasting a good recovery after starting from row nine and ten of the grid.
Alberto Valerio started from P19 (due to retiring in yesterday's race after being hit by Luiz Razia) and was really quick off the line, passing three cars and then trying a move on Ericsson; the Brazilian engaged a fight with the Swedish driver of SuperNova and sticked to his opponent's exhaust for several laps. Valerio put a lot of pressure on him but the Budapest circuit is famous for being among the most difficult for overtaking manoeuvres, and with his opponent making no mistakes Valerio had to settle for position. From then on Alberto focused on a steady pace, and this allowed him to make up some more positions thanks to mistakes from other drivers and technical issues, up to the final 12th place.
Good race also for Vladimir Arabadzhiev: the Bulgarian driver at the start got behind Johhny Cecotto Jr, repeating the previous day's battle for position. After a small mistake Vladimir was passed by Gonzalez and Chilton but his reaction was really great. He improved his pace in the second half of the race, catch his opponents and then he passed them both easily on the inside between lap 19 and lap 21. His laptimes were so good that he was always among the three fastest drivers on track in the last laps, and in just 7 laps he stretched his gap on Gonzalez up to 13 seconds!
So, the team leaves Hungary with some very positive informations on both its drivers and cars quickness, and now the staff will make the most of the one month stop before Spa not only to relax a bit but also to work in order to be even more competitive in the season's last races.
Alberto Valerio: "I had a very good start, passing three drivers on first lap. Then I started battling with the others and doing this I stressed too much the rear tyres, that are really under pressure at Hungaroring. So, keeping a good pace until the end was difficult but I made it, and we gathered some useful infos for next races".
Vladimir Arabadzhiev: "I had too much wheelspin at the start and lost some places, but then I did my best to recover and I made it with a couple of really good overtakings. When the track in front of me was clear I was again as quick as the top group, so now I have just to improve in qualifying".
DAMS - Jerome d'Ambrosio (DNF) Ho-Pin Tung (DNE)
This weekend, DAMS raced in the seventh round of the 2010 GP2 Series, part of the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix meeting on the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest with its usual drivers, Jerome d'Ambrosio and Ho-Pin Tung.
After a promising free practice session, the two drivers did not manage to make the most of qualifying as they finished in twelfth (D'Ambrosio) and sixteenth places (Tung).
The biggest scare of the weekend came just after the start of the first race when Ho-Pin collided with Jules Bianchi's car, which had spun. The Chinese complained of abdominal pains, and was helicoptered to the military hospital in Budapest where he spent the night under observation. After more examinations this morning, the doctors detected a small fracture in one of his vertebrae. Tung will stay in hospital for another two days, and will be out of action for an indeterminate period that could be as long as eight weeks.
In the meantime, d'Ambrosio took sixth place on Saturday after storming his way up through the field. He started from third place on the grid this morning, and looked to have second sewn up when an hydraulic pump failure forced him to retire.
DAMS would like to wish Ho-Pin Tung a speedy recovery and gives him all its support. The next round is on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium in four weeks' time.
Loïc David, General Manager: "The main thing is that Ho-Pin is okay. Of course, his injury is bad news for the whole team as it's going to keep him away from the circuits for a while. This being said, it could have been a lot worse and we're all relieved to hear that he's doing well. From a sporting point of view, we were very disappointed by Jerome's retirement today as he was on target for the podium, and a possible victory was within his grasp. But looking at things from the positively aspect, it's good that we're back among the front-runners. We're going to be more competitive in the second part of the season."
Jerome d'Ambrosio: "First of all I'd like to wish Ho-Pin a speedy recovery. We get on extremely well and I hope to see him back in the cockpit very soon. Racewise, yesterday, I made a good comeback and it could have been rewarded by a podium today but for mechanical failure. Of course, it's disappointing but I prefer to see the positive side: namely, the fact that we're back among the front-runners, which bodes well for my home race in Belgium in a few weeks."
Ho-Pin Tung: "I'd like to thank the team, which has supported me in the past few hours, and has done everything possible to make this difficult experience less painful. The doctors have found that one of my vertebrae is cracked, which is pretty painful, but requires rest more than anything else. My abdominal pains were very acute but I feel now really better, and that's reassuring. I'll walk out of the hospital on Wednesday. Jules too was injured in the accident and I'd like to wish him a speedy recovery."
ART Grand Prix - Sam Bird (DNF) Jules Bianchi (DNE)
Mixed feelings would be an understatement when it comes to describe ART Grand Prix feelings after the Hungarian round of the GP2 Main Series. Indeed, once again both drivers were competitive and potential winners, but lady luck was not on the team's side in Budapest.
Sam Bird flew to his first pole position but that's when the team's good fortune came to an end with Bird finishing thirteenth in race one after a strong comeback. Although securing pole his engine choked at the third start and he was forced to start dead last and from the pits, then he was forced to retire in race two due to a mechanical gremlin.
As for teammate Jules Bianchi, after starting eleventh on the grid in race one he made contact with another car and spun back into the traffic. A red flag ensued and the Frenchman was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a broken vertebrae.
ART Grand Prix will stay close by Jules' side during this painful time and will make the best use of the summer break in order to come back strong in Spa-Francorchamps in four-weeks time.