Dutch racing driver Daniël De Jong secured his and MP Motorsport’s best result of the GP2 Series season so far at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on Sunday, 10th May, after producing a great drive to ninth place in round four of the championship.
The 22-year-old from Westmaas began the event superbly with the sixth fastest time in qualifying for round three, an excellent lap of 1m30.169 seconds (185.851 km/h) placing him little more than 0.1 seconds shy of the top three.
While the Feature Race on Saturday, 9th May, didn’t ultimately work out for De Jong, his terrific drive in round four – from 15th on the grid – was undoubtedly one of his best performances yet in the FIA Formula One World Championship support category.
Competing on home soil, Spanish team-mate Sergio Canamasas produced his best result of the weekend in race one, 13th position, before adding 15th place in round four.
“Daniel had really good pace all weekend and although it’s a shame he wasn’t able to finish in the points, ninth position is a solid result and gives the whole team a big boost for the next round”, said MP Motorsport’s Tony Shaw, “In qualifying he was really strong, very close to the top three, so hopefully Daniel will take a lot of confidence from this to Monaco.
“Sergio raced well and showed his experience in both races, but he wasn’t quite able to make the top 10. As a whole package, we feel the team made a good step this weekend so we’re really looking forward to the next round.”
The start of round three proved frustrating for De Jong after such a strong qualifying run, a sluggish getaway meaning he slipped to ninth while Canamasas ran in 15th position after the first lap – up one place from his qualifying slot.
Climbing into the top six before making his mandatory tyre change pit-stop on lap nine, De Jong eventually finished in 15th position two places behind his team-mate. Canamasas ran a different strategy of making his stop late-on, pitting from sixth position with only 10 of the 37 laps remaining.
Much of the hard work in round four was done by both De Jong and Canamasas at the start, the former climbing into ninth place on the opening lap with the Spaniard right in his wheeltracks. While De Jong was able to remain in ninth position to the chequered flag on lap 25 with a very consistent performance, Canamasas unfortunately slipped to 15th place during the latter part of the contest.
Next on the GP2 Series calendar is the championship’s crown jewel event, the Monaco Grand Prix weekend in Monte-Carlo, with round five scheduled for Friday, 22nd May, and round six set to take place on Saturday, 23rd May.
