Race 1
Super Nova’s Adam Carroll moved into 2nd place in the GP2 Driver Championship after a 4th place finish in the opening race of the French GP meeting. After qualifying in 5th position, Adam dropped to 6th place at the start, but kept in touch with the cars in front. After his obligatory pit stop, and a mid race safety car period, Adam found himself in 4th place, a position held to the flag. In the sister car, Giorgio Pantano started 9th, made a place at the start, but experienced brake problems later in the race, which resulted in a spin, finally finishing 10th position.
The race was won by Ardens Heikki Kovalainen, followed by DAMS Jose Lopez and Nicolas Lapierre in the second Arden car, in third position. Kovalainen extended his lead in the championship to 15 points, but Adams five points moved him into second position, four points ahead of Coloni’s Giamaria Bruni. The second Magny Cours race takes place tomorrow morning, ahead of the French Grand Prix.
Giorgio Pantano (P10)
“I made a mistake in the last two laps, which meant we lost out on a first row place for tomorrows race. I’m a bit disappointed really for me and the team, but we’ll have to see if we can improve on this in the morning”.
Adam Carroll (P4)
“Came away in fourth place, which was a good result. Although it was a bit of a frustrating race for me, as it just didn’t seem to have to pace or challenges up the front. Hopefully we can make some changes and improve the speed for the race tomorrow. Today’s point have moved me into second place in the championship, which is great”
Team Principal – David Sears
“At a circuit where it is normally difficult to overtake, the first laps and pit stop strategies were always going to be important. Giorgio pitted first, but was suffering from brake problems, which caused him to go off the track two laps from the end, slipping from eighth to tenth place.
Adam Carroll used his head and moved up to fourth place after the pit stop and so starts tomorrows race on the second row of the grid. The teams’ engineers need to find a little more speed in the Super Nova GP2 cars for tomorrow. However Adam Carroll moved up to second place in the Driver Championship, and Super Nova stays second in the Team Championship. We have a lot of points to play seen as how we are racing four out of the next five weekends. ”.
