22/08/2008
NEWS STORY
Racing Engineering - Giorgio Pantano (Pole) Javier Villa (14th)
The long awaited GP2 weekend at the new street circuit of Valencia has begun in the best possible way for Racing Engineering, with its driver Giorgio Pantano taking pole position in Qualifying, after having been fastest also in Free Practice. The good showing of the Repsol and Telefónica backed Dallaras has been supported by Javier Villa, who has obtained a place on the seventh row of the grid.
On a track new to all the teams and comprising a very complicated layout, the setup work on the cars was vital and in this area the engineers of the Spanish team have been on the ball from the start achieving a fast and reliable car from the opening moments of this morning's Free Practice. It has allowed Giorgio Pantano to finish the session at the top and with more than half a second's advantage over his closest followers, which made him the hot favourite to take the pole.
In the half hour of qualification, Giorgio has confirmed his superiority and that of the Racing Engineering Dallara, putting it at the top of the timing list from his first attempt at a quick lap, and returning to first place, this time for good in the final part of the session, when the times were improving so for a few minutes he had been removed from first position. With this latest pole position Racing Engineering's Italian driver increases his advantage at the top of the Drivers standings having added two more points to his tally. These extra points also allow the Spanish team to cut the difference to ISport in the fight for the first position in the Team championship.
For his part Javier Villa has also achieved some good work, placing himself in the middle of the pack in the Free practice, whilst he was getting used to the new Valencia track, he gained the fourteenth best lap time. In Qualifying, the young Spaniard was late in being able to find the required pace due to the intense traffic on the track and to several yellow flag incidents as well as a red flag stoppage but he finished the session recovering positions in the decisive final minutes to repeat the 14th place already obtained in the morning. This gives him a position on the seventh row of the grid for the Saturday Feature Race, due to start at four o'clock in the afternoon.
The Feature Race will see his team mate Giorgio Pantano start from pole position and therefore with a big chance to fight for another victory that, in view of his magnificent pace throughout the whole day, seems perfectly within his scope. This opportunity is as much down to his enormous talent as it is to the great work of the whole technical staff at Racing Engineering, which has been able to interpret, in the best way possible, the challenge that, for all the participants in the GP2 Series, has been this first experience of the spectacular Valencia Street Circuit.
Alfonso de Orleans Borbón (team principal): "A fantastic job once again from Giorgio. He has done an amazing job on a circuit which is new to everyone. A pity about Javi's little mistake on his fast lap as I am sure he could have qualified in the top ten. Congratulations to all the boys in the team for the wonderful job. I am very proud of the work they are doing."
Javier Villa: "We improved a lot from free practice for the qualifying. It's good that Giorgio took the pole and fastest lap this morning. I was less than 1.1 sec off, but this is a lot. I was more confident with the car and with the track in qualifying compared to free practice where there was no grip, no rubber on the track. In qualifying it was a lot better. I think I could have finished in top ten as I lost three tenths in the last corner. Qualifying could have gone a bit better, the eight tenths to Giorgio are still a big step, but I am sure I can do well tomorrow. It's not difficult to prepare the car for tomorrow and I hope for a great race and a finish in the points."
Giorgio Pantano: "For me it went quite well. I am on pole after fighting with Maldonado and some other drivers. After what happened in Hungary it is nice we could show we are still on top. It's good to have the pole on a street circuit like this as you can avoid the traffic at the start. To conclude I would like to say thanks to the team as they gave me a great car. The car was perfect which was difficult as no one has ever raced here before."
DAMS - Jérôme d'Ambrosio (6th) Kamui Kobayashi (25th)
Today, DAMS took part in free practice and qualifying for the 8th round of the GP2 Series Championship, part of the programme for the European F1 Grand Prix on the new Valencia circuit in Spain. Kamui Kobayashi and Jérôme d'Ambrosio discovered a track laid out along the port that had been used for the recent Americas Cup. The track is very demanding of both men and machines with slippery asphalt as it was still very dusty plus a number of heavy braking zones. In free practice Jérôme finished 7th and Kamui 20th.
Track conditions were difficult in qualifying this afternoon. In the air it was 30° and on the track 45° subjecting both tyres and cars to a tough test. Right at the start of qualifying the DAMS team had a big scare when Kamui had a huge shunt. He was unhurt but his cat was too badly damaged to enable him to continue the session. He finished 25th while Jérôme was more successful and he set the 6th best time overall after dialling in his car in the mornin g. His position should enable him to score points and have a good weekend.
Eric Boullier, team manager: "We've got mixed feelings this evening. We showed that we've got quick cars and we can really go for it in the race with Jérôme who had a good qualifying session. On the other hand, Kamui's accident is going to give the mechanics a lot of work tonight. He hasn't any hope of scoring points tomorrow barring exceptional circumstances. It's frustrating but we'll do our best for both our drivers tomorrow, and hope that we'll have cause for celebration at the end of the race."
Jérôme d'Ambrosio: "I'm happy with my first day. For several races now we've had the speed to mix it with the front-runners and we'll show it tomorrow. I didn't have any problems during free practice, and I was able to learn the circuit and then set the sixth-quickest time in qualifying. It's encouraging and above all we can score points tomorrow."
Kamui Kobayashi: " What can I say? It was completely my fault. I lost control of the car on the exit from a corner and hit the guardrail twice. It's pretty badly damaged and the team will have a lot of work this evening to repair it. I'd like to thank them in advance for their efforts. It'll be almost impossible to score points tomorrow, but I'll do my very best and I won't give up."
iSport International - Bruno Senna (8th) Karun Chandhok (12th)
Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok will line up eighth and 12th respectively for the opening GP2 Series race at the new Valencia street circuit, a fast, challenging, 3.38-mile strip that wends its way around the city's harbour.
Senna missed vital preparation time during this morning's free practice session, the consequence of a throttle problem, while Chandhok slipped from an initially promising third place. Both, however, remain optimistic that they can claw back lost ground tomorrow.
Bruno Senna: "It took a while to get the car fired up this morning and I lost several laps as a result. When I did get going the session was interrupted by red and yellow flags, so it was quite hard to settle into a rhythm. I also ran out of time to evaluate all the things we would ordinarily have tried"
"I tested an F3 car here in July, which helped me to learn the circuit, but it still takes time to adapt to driving a more powerful car and I felt I was slightly on the back foot when qualifying started. In the end, though, the main problem was traffic. That was the same for everybody, of course, but the session ended up being less about how quickly you could drive and more about traffic management. I never managed a clear lap, so that was that. Despite everything, the car felt OK and I'm confident I can obtain a decent result tomorrow."
Karun Chandhok: "I made a very good start this morning. Conditions were very slippery when practice started, because of all the dust on the track, but the car felt fine and I was happy to be in the top three. In qualifying, however, I just couldn't get the car to work in the slower-speed corners - I've no idea why, but the balance just wasn't there.
"It leaves me with a bit of hard work to do tomorrow, but the team always gives me a great car for the race and we've shown in the past that we can fight back from positions such as this."
Trident Racing - Mike Conway (9th) Ho Pin Tung (22nd)
Mike Conway clocked the 9th fastest mark of today's Qualifying session at Valencia Street Circuit, 8th round of the 2008 GP2 Main Series. The English driver managed to finf the right timing for a flying lap in the closing stages, making his way into the top-10. Chinese Ho Pin Tung had a less fortunate day, and will start from the 22nd spot on the grid for tomorrow's race
Maurizio Salvadori, Team Owner: We had to wait for the latest minutes of the session to find a completely clean lap that could have allowed Mike and the team to put all their potential on-track. Eventually we managet to make it, and Mike came to a really deserved top-10 spot. I'm glad we had the chance to take advantage from our full performance levels, since in other occasions we just couldn't find the ideal conditions. I'm sorry for Ho Pin, who couldn't sort it out with the racetrack, that is really different from Monte Carlo despite being a streetcourse. It'll be providing some true chances of coming back though.
Mike Conway: Today's session was really difficult, with a lot of traffic out all the time. I was eventually able to find a clean lap in the closing stages, but in this cases you sometimes see your chances jeopardized by the slowly-moving cars. The car was good overall, we had a good grip level, but we can also optimize the set-up even more. I like the track, I had the chance to learn it during our GT Race in July, and I got a good feeling with my GP2 car too. I hope to make a good start, and keep a decent pace in what will be a tough-to-tame race.
Ho Pin Tung: Today I didn't achieve what I expected at the beginning. I don't know what kind of problem slowed me down that way, but I felt that the car was loose in traction. I'll be analyzing all the data, comparing it with Mike's, to understand in detail what didn't work. Considered my starting spot, tomorrow's Race will be an hard job to complete.
Durango - Davide Valsecchi (19th) Alberto Valerio (23rd)
Davide Valsecchi nineteenth and Alberto Valerio twetythird: this is the verdict at the end of this afternoon's qualifying session held on the very new, and very spectacular Valencia Street Circuit.
It must be said that this morning, after the free practice session, things were quite different. Davide claimed in fact a good tenth position, Alberto the nineteenth, which made Durango hope to put a car within the first rows of the starting grid. These hopes were coming true towards the end of qualifying, because Davide run two sectors fast enough to take P6 or P7. But the hope faded maybe for an eccess of effort when Davide tried to overtake a competitor in the third sector.
The Durango team manager Luca Zerbini: "This morning we did a satisfying job but during the afternoon it went to smoke precisely when we were improving it. It's hard to swallow but we hope to achieve something better during the two races we still have to run off here in Valencia"