It was a much happier day today for Racing Engineering following on from the engine- related disappointments of Race 1 yesterday.
The Racing Engineering team worked all night on both cars in order to have them ready for today’s race and both cars lined up on the grid looking as good as new. The start of the race was hectic with several cars being involved in an incident at the first corner on the opening lap, fortunately both Racing Engineering cars managed to get through the melee unscathed. The Pace Car was called onto the track whilst the debris was cleared but no sooner had the cars restarted than a further incident saw the Pace Car back on the track.
Both Javier Villa and Sergio Jimenez refused to be ruffled by these incidents and both drivers were soon climbing up the field from their lowly grid slots caused by yesterday’s retirements. Javier Villa was driving with a great combination of pace and aggression setting some really good lap times. For many laps he was involved in a great battle with Campos Grand Prix driver Vitaly Petrov until a great passing manoeuvre around the outside of Petrov saw Javi settle the battle and move up to the 10th place where he finished the race.
Sergio Jimenez belied his lack of experience by avoiding the incidents on the opening laps and soon began to gain positions. Unfortunately he began to find his brake pedal going soft as his brakes suffered in the high ambient temperatures which restricted his pace. However within a few laps his race was over when on lap 10 he was forced to retire when a stone punctured his radiator and his engine overheated.
Alfonso D'Orleans (team principal): “ Firstly I must congratulate the team on the superb job they did in ensuring both our cars were ready to race, they worked all night to prepare them. Javi drove a great race after starting so far back and being delayed and he did really well to finish 10th. Sergio also drove really well considering his lack of familiarity with both the track and the car; I think he is a fantastic newcomer. Although the weekend was generally disappointing I think the team showed enormous potential. As ever I want to thank our main sponsors Repsol and Telefonica.”
Javier Villa (driver car 14): “It was hard having to start from 21st on the grid and I lost time with all the cars spinning at the start. The car was good and I was setting some fast sector times but overtaking was difficult, but despite this I managed to finish 10th.”
Sergio Jimenez (driver car 15): “I had some problems at the start with my clutch but I was able to make a reasonable start, the car wasn’t too bad in the opening laps but I began to suffer from a soft brake pedal in the heat and after 10 laps I had to pull off the track with overheating problems after a stone punctured a radiator.”
