Senna’s title chances

Brilliant start lays the foundations for another podium finish

Bruno Senna put in one of his most spirited race drives of the season at the Hungaroring Saturday afternoon, rising from eighth to third at a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult. His race got off to the best possible start with a spectacular series of passes that gained him four places before the race was two corners old. Thereafter he consolidated his position and moved up to third when rival Vitaly Petrov retired to the pits. The iSport Dallara driver remains second in the standings after his fifth podium finish of the season and now lies only nine points behind series leader Giorgio Pantano.

Bruno Senna:

“I’m really pleased with that. Eighth on the grid was my lowest starting position this season for a Saturday race – and it was probably the worst place for it to happen, because this is such a tight track and overtaking is so difficult. I got good traction off the line, though, and was able to pick up the slipstream from at least three cars on the run down to Turn One. I opted for the outside line and swept past Mike Conway, Giorgio Pantano and my team-mate, Karun Chandhok, in one move.

“After that I struggled a little bit on the first set of tyres, but the team called me in at exactly the right time and the car felt much better balanced on the second set. In the second stint I just focused on looking after the car and keeping the tyres in good shape. It was one of those days when I simply had to get as much as I could from the race and I really don’t think I could have done any more.”

Paul Jackson (iSport team principal):

“That was an incredibly mature drive. Several drivers cracked under pressure today, but Bruno kept a cool head and extracted absolutely everything he could from both his car and the prevailing circumstances. It proved what we have known since the beginning of the season: he is definitely Formula One material.”