Race 1.

Both Trident Racing`s Dallaras managed to end the first race of the weekend at Dubai Autodrome. Ho Pin Tung classified in 11th place after 34 laps, while Harald Schlegelmilch ended up 6 positions adrift. The final round of the 2008 GP2 Asia Series brought up an ultimate time challenge for all the teams entered, as Race 1 shortly followed Practice and Qualifying. The timed session proved to be extremely penalizing for Trident Racing`s driving pair, as Schlegelmilch and Tung clocked respectively the 16th and 17th time of the grid. While the Latvian driver paid the price of a gearbox problem, Tung had a tough time in finding the right moment to express his potential. He recovered during the race where, thanks to a good strategy with late pit-stops, he climbed up to the top spot, before settling for 11th after the second change. On the record, the competitive laps turned in the mid part of the race. Race 2, the season`s grand finale, will be starting at 13:00, local time. Tung and Schlegelmilch will start according to their today`s position; the race will be televised live by Eurosport 2 (UTC/GMT+3).Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Managing Director"I`m partially satisfied with the results scored today. Our final toll was really conditioned by how we performed in qualifying, while we had a good return in term of laptimes during the race. The alternative choice of strategy chosen for Ho Pin Tung brought its results, with a 5-position improvement from the start. He also was very fast, and able to keep the lead for quite some laps. Unfortunately, the strategy chosen for Schlegelmilch didn`t pay off as much. He was locked in the mid of the pack after stopping as early as lap 2. I really want to thank all our staff for the fast pit-stops. We`re facing another tough challenge tomorrow. We hope to collect a points finish with Tung and to help Harald coming back from a difficult starting situation”.