Racing Engineering had a good start in the newly createdGP2 Series. The opening race of the championship held in Imola saw Racing Engineering’s Neel Jani in 6thposition. TThe young Swiss therefore helped RacingEngineering to score the first points for Spain in the GP2Series.
Both the team's drivers started the race from modestpositions due to technical problems occurring on their cars duringthe Friday sessions. Neel Jani started from 12th and Borja Garciafrom 19th position. Both, Neel and Borja, opted for very early pitstops at the beginning of the race and half way through thedistance of 180km came into the pits for their second obligatory pitstop. This strategy allowed both Racing Engineering drivers tocontinuously improve their positions as the race went on. Neelfinished the race in an excellent 6th position. While both driversmentioned serious problems with their brakes, Neel wasnevertheless able to finish the race. His teammate Borja Garcia onthe other hand was not as lucky and spun off the track with just afew laps to go due to his brakes’ poor performance.
Neel Jani after scoring his first points in the championship stated,“I think for today it was the maximum we were able to make. It’snot bad to get from 12th position up to 6th, . I suffered with brake problemssince for me is quite bad as I am a driver who very much balancesand stabilizes his car using the brakes. However, the two early pitstops proved to be the right strategy. After that I simply tried todrive constant lap times and with some 6 laps to go there was nopossibility for me to improve my position anymore so I didn’t takeany risk”.
Borja Garcia after a disappointing race said, “Right after the startthe performance of my brakes became really bad and I had topump the brake pedal before entering every corner. The race itselfwas fine and I was right behind Neel, who in the end finished in 6thposition. But as the race went on, my problems with the brakesbecame more and more apparent and with 6 laps to go I pushedthe brake pedal completely to the floor but there was no reactionfrom the car. I spun off the track and couldn’t continue the race.It’s a real pity I would like to underline that this is not the team’sfault, but due to the car. My mechanics are doing a great job andwork many hours, but it’s upsetting if I finish a session after threecorners or my brakes don’t work anymore”.
