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Racing Engineering – GP2 Monaco Race |
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Tuesday, 29 May 2007 |
Despite both of the Racing Engineering drivers failing to finish the race there were still a number of positives to be taken from the Team’s performance.
The race started under threat of rain and as the lights went off there were problems on the grid as many drivers had to avoid the stalled car of Zuber but luckily everybody made it into St Devote. Both of the Racing Engineering drivers made clean getaways with Javier Villa in 14th and Sergio Jimenez in 20th at the end of lap one. Although Maldonado was pulling away at the front the rest of the cars made for a tightly bunched snake of colour through the Monaco streets.
For once early pit stops were not the general order of the day with
cars stopping anywhere from lap 4 to lap 25. Javier was driving
sensibly but quickly and was making up positions as the cars in front
began to pit, by lap 12 he was 10th, lap 16 he gained another 5 places
and by lap 20 he was third 4 seconds behind a battling Senna and Zaugg.
Sergio had pitted on lap 18 and resumed in a combative 16th place.
Javier was leading a group of four cars but made a small error on
exiting the tunnel chicane as his tyres went off; he immediately dived
into the pits on the 23rd lap for his compulsory stop. He was quickly
back in the race was in almost immediate trouble with some sort of
problem at the rear of the car; unable to control the wayward Dallara
Javier spun and hit the barrier hard. His closely following team mate,
Sergio, was lucky to be able to avoid contact! The Pace Car was called
onto the track as Villa’s car was pushed away. Sergio was now up to
15th which quickly became 14th and he was soon embroiled in a tough
battle with Garcia and pulling away from the chasing Tung, Sergio and
Garcia rapidly closed in on a dice between Hirate and Senna and when
Garcia ran wide at the Loews hairpin Sergio dived to the inside,
unfortunately a combination of a locking brake and a lack of space
meant that he and Garcia had a gentle coming together. With both cars
interlocked they were unable to continue and both drivers clambered out
of their cars.
So, despite the two non-finishes, both of the Racing Engineering cars
were comfortably on the pace and both drivers raced with commendable
maturity on this, the most difficult of, street circuits.
Alfonso D'Orleans (team principal): I’m not very happy as we came
away with no points, as I’ve said Monaco is a roulette where you can
win or lose and we lost. Despite that the boys and the team did a very
good job, Javi had driven really well until his accident, we are still
looking into the cause, it might have been contact with a kerb or
perhaps some debris on the track. Sergio found himself boxed in traffic
for most of the race and really couldn’t show his real pace. We are
confident we can bounce back to form at Magny Cours and we’re looking
forward to the Paul Ricard test when we can refine the cars even more.
Javier Villa (driver car 14): I started 14th and made it through
the first lap OK, I was pushing all the time and the car was going well
but the tyres were starting to get really old by the time I made my pit
stop. I came out of the pits and started to push again but there was
some sort of problem at the rear of the car and I couldn’t avoid
spinning and hitting the barrier
Sergio Jimenez (driver car 15): The race wasn’t too bad and I had
good pace from the start but I was blocked in and it is so difficult to
pass. The car was great after the pit stop, I tried passing the guy in
front 5 laps from the end but he closed the door on me and I was out of
therace. I just need to do better in qualifying so that I am higher up
the grid.
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