Qualification - A  day  of  sharp  contrasts  for  Racing  Engineering  at  the  Hungaroring,  whilst  Javier Villa  continues  to  get  closer  to  the  top  of  the  GP2  series  grid,  achieving  his  best qualifying  result  so  far,  the debut  of  his  new  teammate,  Marcos  Martínez  was frustrated  by  an  unfortunate  set  of  circumstances  that  totally  ruined  the  chances  of the young Spaniard.

For Villa the first target at the Hungaroring was clear, to improve his result in Friday’s qualifying looking, if possible, for a place in the top ten for Saturday’s race. He was so close  to  achieving  his  target  as  when  the  number  14  Dallara  in  its  Repsol  and Telefónica  colours crossed the line on his final fast lap in qualifying, Javi's time was 10th  overall.  But  with  his  time  already  set  he  had  to  watch  as  two  more  drivers improved  his  time  in  the  dying  seconds  and  Javi  ended  up  12th,  still  his  best  ever qualifying result but it looked less satisfying after being so close to finally being in the top ten.

If  Javi's  result  wassatisfying  for  Racing  Engineering,  Marcos  Martínez’s  day  ended up  as  a  big  disappointment  for  both  driver  and  team.  The  young  Spaniard  was running at good pace in free practice, getting used to a GP2 car that he was driving for  the  first  time  while  setting  lap  times  within  107%  of  the  fastest car, this was his target in order to be close to the whole pack despite his lack of experience with the car.  But  it  all  went  wrong  when  just  as  he  started  the  qualifying  session  his  engine stopped for a reason still unknown for the team, and Marcos wasn’t able to complete a flying lap.

As he did not set a valid time in qualifying, the GP2 organisers took the severe   decision   of   not   allowing   him   to   race   this   weekend   despite   his   proven experience  in  both  F3  last  year  and  World  Series  this  season,  where  he's  always been among the best. Thus Javier Villa will be the sole Racing Engineering driver for tomorrow’s race when the  team  is  confident  that  he  will  be,  once  again,  fighting  for  points  and  for  a  good starting position on Sunday’s grid. To achieve this the team is already working on the final changes on the setup in order to get a car that is a bit more stable to allow Javi to  have  a  good  pace  from  the  race  start.  If  these  changes  work  and  the  pit  stop strategy is right  then Javier's chances of giving the team anothercause to celebrate are very good.

Alfonso  D'Orleans(team  principal):  ”Javi  did  some  good  work  even  if  he  found quite  a  lot  of  traffic  on  his  best  laps.  When  he  crossed  the  line  at  the  end  of  the session he was tenth, it's a shame two more cars went byafter and dropped him to 12th.  Marcos  couldn't  run  in  qualifying  after  the  engine  stopped  and  that  means  he won't  be  allowed  to  race  tomorrow  as  he  didn't  have  qualifying  time  within  the 107%,  something  he  had  achieved  in  free  practice.  A  real  shame  as  he's  a  very young driver but he already has proven experience in F3 and World Series, he only needs some more track time to get used to the GP2 car.”

Javier Villa (driver car 14):  ”Qualifying went better than the other times this season, we are closer and closer to the top positions even on a track as difficult as this one to keep up a good pace throughout the lap. Furthermore, the track is very bumpy so we are working on slightly modifying the setup to have a more stable car for the race.”