The first race of the Barcelona meeting of the GP2 Seriesbrought some bittersweet feelings for Racing Engineering.The sweet part was the fantastic fourth position of Neel Jani.The bitter one that Borja Garcia went off the track andtherefore lost all possibilities for this weekend.
Before the lights turned green Borja Garcia, who started from 9thposition, had all chances to obtain a good result during the 180kmrace. And he proved this to be right. Borja had an excellent startmaking up three positions before the first corner of the first lapplacing his car in a good 6th position with most of the race still tocome. It was in lap 2 that Borja started to attack Piquet Jr., whoran in 5th position and slower than the Racing Engineering driver.
The Brazilian closed off the attacks in a not very fair way, whichfinally sent Borja into the gravel. Race finished. Additionally lastrow in tomorrow’s sprint race. This is a real pity, especially whenkeeping in mind that Borja ran very competitively throughout theweekend.
On the other hand though, Neel Jani scored points once againand improved his 6th position at Imola. At the start Olivier Pla’s carwas stopped at the grid and Neel was lucky to get around it.However, he lost some positions and was running at the back ofthe field. At this moment the team and driver opted to take somerisks and chose the strategy of a very early pit stop. Neel rejoinedthe race and found himself able to make very consistent fast lapswithout traffic hindering him. Slowly Neel was able to recuperatepositions and moved up the classification order when the rest ofthe field came into the pits to pick up new tyres. Neel finished therace in a very satisfying 4th position.
At the end of the race Neel Jani commented, “I am very happybecause at the start I was about to crash into Pla, who’s carstopped. This cost me many positions and that’s why we decidedto change my tyres early. Like this I could run without traffic andmake fast lap times. The performance of the car was excellentand improved throughout the weekend, something I would reallylike to thank Racing Engineering for. As for tomorrow, I start froma great position and my goal is definitely the podium”.
Borja Garcia said, “I had a great first lap of the race making upthree positions and running in 6th position. My next objective wasto overtake Piquet as I was faster than him. When I tried toovertake him, he closed off my attacks several times and this atone point forced me to go off the track in the SEAT corner. I onlyhad two options, stay stuck behind him or try to pass him. Fortomorrow’s race my expectations are all but high. I am starting atthe end of the field and the race is too short to make up a lot ofpositions”.
Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon, team principal, after the Saturdayrace mentioned, “On one hand I am really happy about Neel’sresults and because we have seen that both our cars can be verycompetitive. On the other hand though, I am not exactly happyabout Borja’s early finish of the race. He worked really hard duringthe weekend and deserved a good result. The Neel’s was perfect– from the early pit stop to his consistently fast lap times. I thinkNeel is very close to his first podium in this championship, whichhe very much deserves”.
