12/11/2010
NEWS STORY
Racing Engineering - Dani Clos (2nd) Ho-Pin Tung (23rd)
Racing Engineering has finished the first day of competition at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi with Dani Clos setting the second fastest time in qualifying. The Spanish driver battled heavy traffic to get the most out of his fresh tyres and finished in an excellent second position, allowing him to start Saturday's GP2 feature in Abu Dhabi from the front row. Ho-Pin Tung, who joined Racing Engineering last night to replace sick Christian Vietoris, had his first contact with a GP2 car in over three months. The Dutch Chinese driver finished today's qualifying in 23rd position.
Although the GP2 Asia stopped over at Abu Dhabi last winter, it was the first time for the GP2 Main Series to race in Abu Dhabi and therefore the first time for Racing Engineering to compete at the fantastic Yas Marina circuit.
Therefore, arriving at the Yas Marina circuit was a learning experience. With targets in the drivers' as well as the teams' championships.
It was already very warm when the GP2 cars started the first session of the day on a dry Yas Marina track. With GP2 the first ones to run in Abu Dhabi this weekend, the track was quite dirty and had no rubber on it yet, which resulted in a challenge for the entire field. The lack of grip was the major problem for most drivers. However, both Racing Engineering drivers were content with their cars and finished the session in 11th and 15th place.
Right after qualifying everyone at the Abu Dhabi track was able to witness a spectacular event - rain in the desert. A short but heavy shower washed the rubber off the tarmac again, meaning that Friday's qualifying was to be very demanding.
When the lights turned green for the afternoon qualifying session, all drivers were quick at joining the session as all their skills were requested today. After his first flying lap, Dani was in seventh position, while Ho-Pin, who drove a race car for the first time since his accident in Budapest at the beginning of August, was in 22nd. In the meantime it was Bianchi, who set the temporary reference time, which was quickly improved by Turvey. With lap times quickly changing, Dani found himself in 9th position when he came into the pits to pick up a fresh set of tyres halfway through the session. Shortly after Dani, it was Ho-Pin who entered the pits after having clocked the 18th fastest time. Rejoining the session on new tyres, both Racing Engineering drivers suffered from traffic and Dani dropped back to 12th position. With only four minutes to go, Dani finally found a clear lap and set the fastest time. It was during the last minute that Turvey set an even faster time, taking pole away from the young Spaniard in the Racing Engineering car. Dani finished the session in an excellent second place and will start tomorrow's feature race, which is scheduled to take place at 11:00 (8:00 CET), from the front row.
Ho-Pin's first qualifying ever at the tricky Yas Marina circuit and after such a long period of recovery, was not displaying the Gravity driver's potential properly. Although many new factors came into play for Ho-Pin, as he never drove at this track before, had his first work day with the Racing Engineering crew and only found out last night that he would race today, the Dutch Chinese driver was delivering a solid performance. He could have qualified better for tomorrow's race, if he had a bit more luck to find a gap allowing him to set a fast lap without being hampered by traffic. Ho-Pin will have to start the feature race from 23rd position and will take advantage of the 33 laps of Saturday's race to climb the standings.
Dani Clos: "This was a positive qualifying session. We have been able to set one good lap time, which made us achieve this good result. Tomorrow will be different and we need to continue working in order to achieve yet another good result. We are happy today, of course, but the weekend is still long and the aim is to score as many points as possible."
Ho-Pin Tung: "Well, it's been a long time since I last drove and it's also been my first time at this track and with Racing Engineering. It didn't help, that in qualifying, on my second set of tyres, I had no lap in free air at all. I think we should have definitely qualified higher up. But I have to say that Yas Marina is a very nice race track."
Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon, President of Racing Engineering: "Fantastic work from Dani. A front row start is a great result. There is no reason for not making a decent podium out of it. But the main aim is third position in the drivers' championship. For Ho-Pin it was a complicated day where an extremely steep learning curve was required. Being with us for the first time, not knowing the track, a long pause since the last time in a race car and knowing about his drive quite late, are all factors that he quickly tried to tick off his list and I have to say that he settled into our work mode quite well. I am sure we will see more progress during the rest of the weekend. Fantastic work also from all the boys. As usual, they have been working without fault, like all season. Congratulations to everyone and let's prepare tomorrow's race now."
Trident Racing - Adrian Zaugg (11th) Federico Leo (24th)
The GP2 Main Series was back on-track today after a 2-month break for the 2010 season finale, hosted at the Abu Dhabi circuit. Trident Racing landed in the Emirates fielding two cars for South African Adrian Zaugg and Italian rookie Federico Leo. The 22-year-old youngster is facing a tough challenge, as he's new to both the car and the track, and had the chance to run just the regular 30-minute practice session on the team's Dallara. Leo did not make mistakes, as he progressively improved his laptimes before scoring the 22nd fastest lap of the field. Zaugg ended up close to the top-10 at first, as he captured 11th place, but was then promoted to 7th after 6 drivers were penalized for exiting the pit-lane with red lights. The Abu Dhabi weekend is set to continue tomorrow, with the dispute of Race 1 at 11:00 AM Local Time. The 2010 finale is set for 13:30. The RAI network will cover Race 1 in Italy, while Race 2 will be televised live by National channel RAI 2.
Adrian Zaugg: "A top-10 spot was definitely in our frame today, despite we haven't found a perfect balance in the third and last sector of the track. I hope for a safe race tomorrow. I'm looking forward to score some valuable points and get a good starting spot on Race 2's grid".
Federico Leo: "It's been a busy day. I've been knowing the team, but everything else was just completely new to me. The car, the racetrack, the tires, everything. I didn't make mistakes, and I tried to improve lap-by-lap while I was looking for some landmarks to count on. I was really impressed by the braking of these cars, and by the necessity to have a deep knowledge of how the tires work. I also believe that the ability to detect when it's the right moment to put a flying lap in can be key. That takes time though. I hope to run a flawless maiden race in GP2, and I'm sure I'll be constantly lowering my laptimes".
Super Nova - Josef Kral (17th) Marcus Ericsson (20th)
The final GP2 qualifying session of the season took place in Abu Dhabi today, with Super Nova drivers, Josef Kral and Marcus Ericsson qualifying in 13th and 19th respectively. Josef's performance was very respectable considering that he hasn't been in the number 5 GP2 car since Valencia and has therefore missed the large amount of track time that his fellow drivers have had. There were no issues at all with his back and he was improving his times with almost every lap. Marcus' session began well, with very competitive sector times on the first run but unfortunately he couldn't find the time that others did on the second set of new slicks. Both drivers are ready to give it their all tomorrow to try to fight their way into the points.
Josef Kral: "I think it's not too bad for the first time I have been in the car for around five months. I was improving all of the time but didn't quite get the best out of my tyres as my best laps were in the last few laps. I still need to get back fully in order to prepare myself and the tyres for the really fast laps but overall I am pleased that I'm feeling good in the car and we will see how everything goes with the race tomorrow."
Marcus Ericsson: "It's been a tough day. Like normal we are quite quick in the beginning of the sessions in practice and qualifying but we cannot seem to make the steps that others do to get their best lap times, so once again a disappointing qualifying. I know and I've showed this year that I can race well and I will do this again tomorrow and see where we can get up to."
David Sears - Team Principal: "With both of our drivers knowing the track here well I have to say that I expected a better qualifying session for Super Nova today. Having said that, Josef re-aquatinted himself well with the GP2 car and I thought he did a good job considering the track time that he has missed through injury. Unfortunately we didn't make the necessary gains on the second set of tyres with Marcus, resulting in him falling down the order. "
Scuderia Coloni - Brendon Hartley (18th) James Jakes (22nd)
Brendon Hartley and newcomer James Jakes will start respectively from P18 and P22 on the grid in the first race of the Abu Dhabi GP2 weekend.
In a very tricky session, with a very slippery track due to dirt and rain drizzles in the morning, the Scuderia Coloni drivers also had to cope with the normal odds coming from the fact that they are GP2 rookies.
Brendon Hartley is only at his second race in the Series and never raced on the Abu Dhabi track before, while James Jakes made his debut on the Main Series car in the morning Free Practice.
Qualifying was anyway useful to gather datas looking to the race and,thanks to a track layout that provides some overtaking opportunities, the objective for tomorrow's race is a strong comeback with both cars.
Paolo Coloni: "Even if we are not satisfied for this qualifying result, we can't forget that Brendon is just at his second GP2 weekend, while James managed to come here at the very last moment to step-in for Parente, stopped by otitis. So, all things considered, the session was useful as we got some useful infos for the setup. Tomorrow's race will be very long and the track conditions should be very different from today, so there's room for a good recovery".