13/05/2007
NEWS STORY
Javier Villa - 2nd: I made a great start and pulled out a couple of seconds but Glock was just so quick I couldn't fight him. The last 18 laps were really nice, the car was really good and I was able to keep ahead of Di Grassi and Senna. This is such a great result for me after having to start 26th yesterday; the team did a fantastic job and it was wonderful to do so well in front of all the fans that were supporting me.
Lucas Di Grassi - 3rd: It was very good to secure my first podium but we expected even better. I thought it was great Timo Glock did not pit at the same time as us, but I got held by Nakajima when I was exiting the pit lane and it cost me 2 positions. I had to push hard to overtake Lapierre and Senna, I did so, a bit too much. The rear tyres were destroyed at the end and I could not hold Timo off. Race 2 was rather good, except I braked too hard at the first corner. I had flat-spotted my tyres and the balance of the car was not good for the whole race. I had a lot of vibrations and it was impossible to gain positions. I'm happy with my two first podiums but I hope we'll do better in Monaco. I love street circuits like Monaco and Macau where I won in F3.
Bruno Senna - 4th: "It's not easy to overtake here and I needed to save the tyres until the end of the race. Unfortunately we weren't so strong in traction so I couldn't take advantage of the straights, but I learned where Lucas was struggling and tried to push him into making a mistake there. I didn't try too hard to overtake because I didn't want to lose the championship points, but I did my best. To go from eighth to fourth in this race at this circuit isn't bad anyway. I've moved from fifth to second in the championship over this weekend, so it's not bad for my first year! I had a good weekend in Bahrain and I've really enjoyed myself here and I had a good race today. I had a lot of fun and I just wish I'd had three more laps, because I probably could have passed Lucas."
Sergio Jimenez - 5th: I didn't get away well at the start and dropped to 6th but I was soon able to recover a position to 5th. I had some changes made to the car overnight but they didn't work as I had hoped so I just concentrated on finishing well. Javi drove a great race and the Team have done a really good job for me. I hope we will be able to get another good result at the next race.
Kazuki Nakajima - 7th: "It was a disappointing race for me. I did a good start and I was 7th behind Petrov when he made a mistake in the last corner. We had a small contact and Pantano, just behind, overtook me".
Luca Filippi - 11th: "The last two laps were a hard fight. The steering got bent somewhere along the way, which affected the set up of the car and made it very difficult to manage. It was tough race."
Mike Conway - 12th: "The start and first lap were good for me, I then struggled to improve until towards the end where I found the speed to catch up, but unfortunately it was too late to get past anyone. I'm now looking forward to Monaco, somewhere I haven't raced before!"
Borja Garcia - 14th: "A positive first race of the season. In race 1 I didn't take any particular risks and was able to maintain a good speed while in race 2 I had an excellent start but on the first few laps I had a small technical problem that resulted in me losing the lead. As soon as the problem was adjusted I starter to push forward and felt at ease with the car. However, while I was tailing Fillipi a small error made me drop back a few metres and I was unable to recover. As I said, it was a good start."
Karun Chandhok - 15th: "I consider my debut a good one. I made a mistake in the qualifiers which resulted in me losing 3 tenths and dropping back a few positions. Race 1 was very exciting, I really enjoyed myself and I felt at ease with the car. In Race 2 I lost a few positions in order to avoid the pile-up on the first bend. The car raced well but as I was trying to regain position I had contact with another driver and the race for me ended there."
Mikhail Aleshin - DNF: Considering that I did not know the car until the qualifying session I think I had a great debut in the GP2 series. There is a big difference between the GP2 and the World Series by Renault. In a nutshell, I had to change my driving style and learn how to use the tyres in a blink of an eye. They're not working as long as the ones we have in WSbR and I would need more runs to get used to them. But the team is extremely professional and helped me to come to grips with the Dallara and everything worked well in race 1. Race 2 was not as good as the first one though. I picked up a lot of understeer and was struggling from lap 1. I don't really understand why and that's something we'll have to look into. I don't know what happened when I spun. I lost the grip on the front, I gain some speed, hit a kerb and spun as a consequence. All in all the weekend was good and I'm glad to bring 3 more points to the team.
Christian Bakkerud - DNF: "We didn't qualify as well as we expected which was a combination of myself and the car. However, we had a good race yesterday considering that we started in 23rd and that after about seven laps I had a trapped nerve in my back. As the race progressed the pain increased, until the point that I couldn't speak on the radio. I had some treatment on it last night and took some painkillers before today's race, but when they wore off the pain returned and we decided it was better to stop racing and turn our attentions to being ready for Monaco. It was disappointing for us, but we showed that we have the pace and the potential. We'll look to Monaco to turn this into points."
Andy Soucek - DNF: "We started well with a good pace in the practice session although we weren't able to carry this through in qualifying as I was struggling for grip. For yesterday's race we aimed to achieve a good rhythm and I was able to turn consistent laps, but we couldn't find the time in the car that we needed, particularly opting for the late pitstop strategy. At first I wasn't too sure about that, but the team were right to do this as I did make up some places and was able to finish 14th which was a better grid position for the sprint race.
"Today's race started well as I was up to ninth after the first corner but coming into the second I made a mistake and was late on the brakes, ending up making contact with Christian and damaging my car so I couldn't continue. I was feeling much more comfortable in the car this weekend, and reckon that we could have scored our first points, but that's not the way it turned out."