Point for Lopez in Hungary GP2 Race
Jose Maria Lopez took eighth place in the Saturday GP2 race
in Hungary, and the Renault Driver Development squad member
will this start the Sunday sprint from pole position. Meanwhile
it was another difficult afternoon for Lucas di Grassi, who
suffered with engine problems.
Jose did a great job to secure second in qualifying, behind
Nelson Piquet. On the dusty side of the track he lost ground
off the line and was passed by Michael Ammermueller. The German
went round the outside line at Turn One, and on the exit Jose
just clipped his rear wheel and sent him spinning. The incident
also cost Jose some momentum and he dropped down to seventh.
He struggled with oversteer for most of the race, and despite
an assault from Adam Carroll brought the Super Nova car safely
home in eighth.
Lucas lost time with a slow pit stop but his main problem
was a loss of power that afflicted the Durango car in the
latter stages of the race, and saw him lose a few spots and
drop back to 14th. Earlier he was embroiled in a fight with
championship leader Lewis Hamilton that earned him a lot of
TV coverage!
Jose Maria Lopez: ‘I thought that
I was going to be competitive in the race. I did a good qualifying
lap despite oversteer, but the handling got even worse with
old tyres, and I really struggled. I didn't have a great start
because I was on the dirty side of the track. We arrived in
the first corner with Ammermueller next to me. As soon as
I turned I had a little bit of oversteer and I had to correct
the car. He was very close, and we touched a little bit. It
was more a racing incident than anything, and I lost a few
places. The others were pulling away so we pitted early and
put new tyres. You normally expect to have a little understeer
on new tyres, but the car was already neutral for one or two
laps and then I started getting oversteer again. Adam Carroll
was very aggressive and he pushed me out, and I nearly rolled
over! I was quite lucky with that. In the last few laps I
had some gearbox problems but I kept the eighth position.
I think if we can improve the car we can win on Sunday.'
Lucas di Grassi: ‘There's nothing
I can say! We didn't have a very good pit stop and we lost
five or six seconds. I kept Hamilton behind for about 10 laps,
and he was with new tyres. I was trying to overtake my team
mate, and after I got past him I had an engine problem, and
he overtook me again. I was going back about six or seven
seconds a lap. It's the third time in a row that we've had
a problem like that. It's very hard to be related to luck!
I was losing power as the race went on, and we just need to
check everything. So it's not been a good weekend so far but
I hope things are better on Sunday.'
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