Qualifying
#20 Mike Conway, 16th#21 Ho Pin Tung, 23rd
The last round of the 2008 GP2 Main Series season started yesterday at Monza. The initial practice session was moved 1 hour forward due to an inclement weather that turned the Italian racetrack into a water madness. Conditions grew considerably better in the afternoon, when a hot sun dried the track`s surface, allowing drivers to move from rain to slick tires. On wet, Trident Racing ran good, as Mike Conway clocked the third fastest mark before falling all the way down to 16th in Qualifying, 7 spots in front of team Mate Ho Pin Tung. The first race of the weekend is set to start tomorrow at 16:00, on a 32-lap distance, while 21-lap long Race 2 is scheduled for Sunday at 10:30. Satellite channel Sky Sport will televise the two races live, while terrestrial National TV RAI2 will broadcast live the final heat of the season. All times are local (GMT+2).
Maurizio Salvadori, Team Owner"Mike ran strong with wet track conditions but didn`t catch the right slipstream during Qualifying, a determining factor here at Monza, and ended up in 16th with just a one-second gap from the pole spot. His position could have easily been better by putting together all his best split times: things that happen in such a competitive series like the GP2. Speaking of Ho Pin, I think he`s not OK with his car, since his position is clearly different than what we expected. If tomorrow`s race will be wet, I think we might have a good shot to the points zone, in order to be guaranteed a top starting spot on Sunday".
Ho Pin Tung"Today`s situation was quite atypical, as track conditions dramatically changed from practice to qualifying. This morning I had small brake troubles, then, in the afternoon, my best laptime was not competitive, despite I felt OK with my car`s set-up. By combining my best splits together, I might have improved, but keeping a big gap from the top".
Mike Conway
“I`m not satisfied with today`s laptime. The car was good on fast corners, while it was unstable on the kerbs, and that conditioned the traction while exiting from the chicane. I hope tomorrow`s race will be run on a wet racetrack like forecast say, since laptimes were definitely better in the wet”.
