The opening round of the GP2 series didn’t exactly go to plan for RacingEngineering, with a number of problems arising to test everyone in the team, butthe lessons learned will provide good experience for what promises to be a fiercebattle in the championship this year.
QUALIFYING With tricky conditions owing to the lack of grip on the track, and unfortunatelyboth Adam Carroll and Javier Villa, like so many of their competitors, werecaught out by traffic and yellow flags on the tight circuit in Valencia. Adam linedup in thirteenth on the grid, while Javier was on the last row after a spin. Itmeant both drivers were in for a struggle in the race on a circuit where it isfamously difficult to overtake.
RACE 1 Javier had a problem and almost stalled at the start. He had to limp around tothe pits to be restarted, losing two laps in the process. Adam also had a problem,dropping a number of places at the start before fighting strongly back up thefield. Javier was understandably unable to make up the time lost, butnonetheless pushed hard to finish 18th. Adam was one of the very few drivers toovertake anyone, muscling by a number of drivers before being tapped into aspin by Xandi Negrao with two laps to go. He recovered to 14th.
RACE 2 Adam and Javier had a good start, and an aggressive approach allowed them tomove up the field. A few laps before the end of the race, Adam was fighting for7th place. As he looked for a way past, the Ulsterman was caught out by an earlybraking Valles before launching over and rolling a number of times, finally coming torest in the gravel trap at turn three. As the marshals rushed to his aid, Adam climbedserenely from his broken car, removed his helmet, waved and grinned widely as heacknowledged the applauding fans for their concern. Javier finished 9th.
QUOTES Adam Carroll : "Race 1 was the toughest race I've ever done. I made a bad startand was lucky not to stall but I worked my way back up. After the pit-stop Iovertook Xandy Negrao but then felt him hit me from behind. I spun but, luckily,I didn't lose much ground. Race 2 has been busy as well. I am lucky I'm okay. Iknew as soon as I saw the sky that I was going to roll. It's actually the first timeI've ever rolled in my 14 years of motor sport! Otherwise, I feel pretty confidentfor the rest of the season. There's still a few things that we need to do but I’msure we can go on from here and just improve all the time."
Javier Villa : "It's been a positive week-end overall. I had a problem at the startof Race 1 which meant I was two laps down straight away, but the car felt goodand I gained more experience. Race 2 was much better: I gained two positionsat the start and I’ve been able to push hard all the way. At the end, the car wasoversteering a lot, but I finished 9th. I'm quite happy."
Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon : "The team did a great job this week-end and I’mreally proud of them. Thank you to everybody. The cars performed better andbetter as we fine tuned the set-up and found more performance. It paid off :Adam could have finished 5th in Race 2. He's OK, which is the most importantthing. Now we need to fix the car! In the end, this week-end has beenencouraging and we're looking forward to Imola in two weeks. "
