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Racing Engineering – Monaco GP2 Preview |
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Wednesday, 23 May 2007 |
After the great results obtained a fortnight ago at Montmeló, Racing Engineering arrives on a high at one of the most eagerly anticipated dates of the year, the race on Monaco’s street track.
The GP2 series will run on the famous streets of the Principality of Monaco for its third race weekend of the season. The special nature of the track means that this is a totally unique weekend, with a different format than any other GP2 race meetings. Instead of the usual two races, the feature on Saturday and the sprint on Sunday, at Monaco the GP2 cars will compete only once. This single race will be at 4PM on Saturday while the training sessions will start on Thursday with an extra free practice. The starting grid will be, as usual, decided on the Saturday qualifying, due at the earlier time of 10:00 in the morning.
The two Racing Engineering drivers arrive at Monaco still holding on to
the good feelings left by the very good team result they achieved at
Montmeló. For Javi Villa scoring his first points, as well as his first
podium on home soil, in front of his fans was a really special moment
in his still short but already exciting career. Javi’s second position
in Sunday’s race was for Racing Engineering the confirmation of why the
team and his sponsors, Repsol and Telefónica, have been betting so hard
on the young Spaniard. The talent that Racing Engineering’s team
principal, Alfonso D’Orleans, has always recognised in Javi was more
evident than ever in the two races held at the Catalonian track and
that success should mean the start of a very positive season for Villa
in his second year in GP2. At Monaco Javi proved last year how well he
can run on such a complex track, scoring his best qualifying result of
the season, albeit his race was ruined alter being hit from behind by a
following car entering the always incident prone St.Devote corner.
Sergio Jiménez, for his part, also showed at Barcelona how good his
driving is and how much he can add to the team efforts in his maiden
GP2 season. The young Brazilian driver scored points in both races
showing his fast development at the wheel of the Dallara. On a track
that he already knew from his F3 racing, Sergio could finally compete
without the disadvantage of lack of circuit experience, something he
faces at most of the other races, and this allowed him to show up his
true potential. At Monaco, Sergio faces the always tough challenge of
driving for first time through the streets of the Principality so his
initial target will be to learn the track as soon as possible, without
any incidents that would prevent another potentially good result. The
young Brazilian has got class enough to spring a surprise.
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