TOP 12 FINISH FOR DE JONG HIGHLIGHT OF HUNGARORING GP2 WEEKEND
Dutch racing driver Daniel De Jong and the MP Motorsport team rued what might have been during the latest instalment of GP2 Series action at the Hungaroring over the weekend, 27th/28th July, when excellent front-running pace went largely unrewarded.Rapid from the off during free practice, where the 21-year-old posted the eighth fastest time, De Jong continued his great form into qualifying and was at the sharp end throughout before concluding the session with the 10th quickest lapa mere 0.6 seconds shy of pole position.
Due to a penalty from the previous event, though, the GP2 rookie had to begin race one from 15th on the grid. New team-mate Dani Clos, returning to the FIA Formula One World Championship support category for the first time in over a year, qualified 23rd on the grid for his MP Motorsport debut.In scorching hot Hungarian weather, with the track temperature peaking at around 45 degrees Celsius, hopes were high for a strong race but an aborted startdue to Ricardo Teixeiras car becoming stranded on the formation lapled to a delay. Unfortunately, De Jong and Clos both inadvertently stalled on the grid and so their cars were pushed away for a pitlane start.With Clos ahead of De Jong, the team-mates made strong progress and circulated nose-to-tail in that order until De Jong dived past on lap four to take 19th position. Moving through into the top 10 by lap eight as the pit-stops started, De Jong climbed into eighth before taking his stop on lap nine.Clos pitted one lap later and as the race order settled down, De Jong ran in 20th position just ahead of the Spanish racer. Locked in a train behind the slower car of Daniel Abt, the MP Motorsport pair were eager to find a way pastespecially De Jong who was put wide by the German on lap 29.As the tightly compacted mid-order shuffled, De Jong emerged in 15th position with Clos three places further back and both were able to make further gains during the final laps. De Jong posted one of his best results of the year in 12th while Clos took 14th on a challenging return to the championship.In Sundays Sprint Race, De Jong made a good start from 12th on the grid and got himself into a position to fight for the top 10 on the outside at Turn One but as he rounded the exit, the left-rear wheel on his Dallara was clipped by Sergio Canamasas. Pitching the MP Motorsport car across the track, subsequent contact ruled De Jong out on the spot.Fortunately, Clos was able to make his way through the carnage unscathed and following a brief Safety Car period racing resumed with the Barcelona native in 14th position. Soon enough, though, the GP2 returnee had to make an enforced pit-stop after sustaining a front-right puncture following contact from championship leader Stefano Coletti.Losing a significant amount of time, and incurring steering damage though the incident, Clos did rejoin the action but eventually retired from the encounter with four laps remaininga frustrating conclusion to a character-building weekend.Its a real shame we didnt manage to score points this weekend as we definitely had good pace in the cars, said MP Motorsport team principal Sander Dorsman, Daniel was quick from the start and really deserved a top 10 finish at least, without the grid penalty who knows what might have been?It was great working with Dani for the first time, he had a hard task to face coming back into a championship as competitive as GP2 after a year away but he did a good job. He was very unlucky in race two, as Danil was, but thats the way it goes sometimes.Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium will host rounds 15 and 16 of the GP2 Series four weeks from now, over the weekend 24th/25th August.
