Dams on the podium
Sunday’s short race was the second in the 8th round of the 2008 GP2 Series Championship held on the Valencia circuit as a curtain raiser to the European F1 Grand Prix.
DAMS drivers, Jérôme d’Ambrosio and Kamui Kobayashi had very different races. Jérôme was in 4th place on the grid after finishing 5th Saturday.
He fluffed his start and found himself in 7th position early on. But he did not make any mistakes while those in front of him went off one after another, and he crossed the line in 3rd place. He then gained another position after the second-placed driver was penalised.
It was his first rostrum finish in the GP2 Series and he added 5 more points to his tally bringing his total to 12. Kamui made an awesome comeback from 25th on the grid to 7th and also moved up a place due to the penalty scoring the point for sixth.
DAMS is in 9th place in the teams’ ratings with 22 points. Next round in 2 weeks on the daunting Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.
Eric Boullier, team manager: “It’s been a good day for DAMS thanks to Jérôme’s rostrum finish. It’s a great reward for the whole team and all the work they’ve done over the past few weeks. Hats off to Kamui who made a fantastic comeback and was rewarded with the point that goes with 6th place. This weekend’s result shows that when we start race one at the front of the grid everything’s easier and we’ve scored points in both rounds. What we’ve achieved here with our cars, we’ll be putting all our efforts into repeating in the next two races on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.”
Jérôme d’Ambrosio4th on the grid, 2nd at the finish
“My start wasn’t as good as I’d hoped and I lost several places. Nonetheless, I was very quick and my consistency paid off and I gradually worked my way up the classification. I’ve got onto the rostrum at last and I’ve managed to confirm the progress we’ve made over the last few races. In two weeks we’ll be at Spa-Francorchamps and I’ll be out to achieve good performances and shine in front of my home crowd.”
Kamui Kobayashi25th on the grid, 6th at the finish
“It was sure that starting from so far back it was impossible to score points, but I pushed like crazy and my rivals made a lot of mistakes. Finally, I managed to score one point starting from second-last place; it’s a good result and shows that if I’d qualified higher I would have been among the front-runners this weekend.”
