Alvaro Parente kept showing his fantastic potential Sunday morning at Spa-Francorchamps, after another great recovering from seventh to third, leaving the Belgian circuit as the GP2 driver who scored most points.
After his great performance on Saturday – when he claw back from sixteenth on the grid to second at the flag, putting pressure in the eventual winner – yesterday the Portuguese youngster made another attacking race that lead him to the third place, with some good overtaking manoeuvres.
The Coloni driver feels that we could have fought for the win, but the track was very tricky, as it’s possible to see for the great number of driver who ended off track and led to three Safety-Cars periods, and he preferred to assure another podium and another good result. “The car was again very good and I could climb up in the order. At a time I was side by side with van der Garde and Gonzalez and I could feel that the track was still damp, so I decided not to take risks, because it was very important another podium and end the Spa-Francorchamps round as the driver who conquered more points during the weekend. I think that, if I took some risks, I could have fought for the win, but I would have to take many risks”, underlined Alvaro Parente.
With Sunday third place, the driver from Oporto completed an amazing return to GP2, something that left him very happy. “It was fantastic! Being back to GP2, fighting for the win at the first race achieving a second and a third places and, above all, being the driver who scored more points. I would like to thank to Coloni, to my sponsors and, of course, to my fans who supported me during my entire career”, concluded Alvaro Parente.
Pedro Moreira do Santos, the Portuguese driver manager, was, understandably, pleased with his driver performance, underlining his qualities. “This return to GP2 was very important, as he showed once more, that he is on the level to be in Formula 1, mainly because he was one year far from this kind of cars, having being involved in other series”, said the man behind Polaris, who added: “We believe that he will complete the GP2 season, above all because he showed again that he can fight for wins in any car, because it’s important to underline that Coloni, before this weekend, was in the last position of the Teams Championship standings, something that was changed by Alvaro’s results”.
