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Racing Engineering – GP2 Magny Cours – Race 2 |
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Tuesday, 03 July 2007 |
Javier Villa today showed just how talented he is with a stunning debut GP2 victory, driving with a wonderful combination of speed, aggression and maturity he took command of the Magny Cours circuit and repaid the faith that Alfonso D’Orleans, Racing Engineering and their backers, Repsol and Telefónica have placed in him.
Conditions were extremely tricky as the cars started their warm up lap,
earlier rain had left the track very slippery in places and to make
life harder still recent track resurfacing had made it almost
impossible for the drivers to “read” the tarmac and spot any dry lines.
As the lights went off Javier made a good start from second on the grid
tucking in behind pole sitter Lapierre into the first corner. Lapierre
initially pulled out a gap as Javier made sure he was confident of the
track conditions but by lap 4 he was closing in on the gearbox of the
DAMS car.
Soon Javi was shadowing the more experienced Frenchman as they, and
third place Filippi who had joined the battle, pulled out a gap of
several seconds on the pursuing pack. Javi began to apply more and more
pressure to Lapierre and on lap 16 his persistence paid off as Lapierre
locked his brakes heavily on the entrance to Adelaide and skated off
the track. Javi was now leading from a closely following Filippi and
the young Spaniard now put his head down and began to pull away at a
tenth or two a lap gradually building up a lead of nearly 2 seconds.
Suddenly there was drama with 5 laps left as it began to rain and
Javier had to drive with great skill, fast enough to keep the pursuing
Filippi and Pantano at bay but not so fast as to risk an accident. The
remaining laps clicked off as Javi kept a lead of around half a second
to take the chequered flag and a fully deserved first win in GP2. The
Racing Engineering team members were leaning over the pit wall waving
and cheering their ecstatic driver as he took his slowing down lap
punching the air in delight.
Following a difficult day yesterday this victory was a tribute to the
dedication and hard work of the Racing Engineering team allied to the
skill of their young Spanish charger.
Alfonso D'Orleans (team principal):”I'mabsolutely ecstatic. Javi has
done a great job showing again his immense talent and he’s become the
youngest ever winner at this level, younger even than Fernando Alonso
when he won in formula 3000. Being just 19 years old he has already
taken a podium and a victory and from now on the only way is up for
him. Above everything I'd like thank Repsol, Telefónica and Mapfre
for betting on us when nobody believed in this project,
today’s result shows just how right they were. I want also to thank the
whole team for their great work, especially after Viso’s accident
yesterday. Ernesto is getting on well and he’s coming to the track
right now so there are only reasons to enjoy the celebrations although
we shouldn't sleep on today’s victory, there is a lot of work
to do as the next race, at Silverstone, is just around the
corner.”
Javier Villa (driver car 14): ”"Everything went very well, we were
running steadily and always with some margin ...it has actually been
quite a relaxed race! At the beginning it was a bit difficult to follow
right behind Lapierre as I couldn't push as I wanted. Once he had made
his mistake I could get past him and start to really push and lap
something like 7 tenths quicker. At the end it started to rain slightly
so I had to slow down a little bit but I still had some speed margin in
hand in case it should have been necessary."
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