No luck for RDD boys in Hungarian rain
Renault Driver Development squad members Jose Maria Lopez
and Lucas di Grassi were among the many victims of treacherous
conditions at the Hungaroring as heavy rain made the GP2 sprint
race into a lottery.
Having finished eighth in the Saturday race, Jose started
from pole. The cars ran for three laps behind the safety car
before the green flag flew and Jose led the field away. He
had the difficult job of being first to discover how wet it
really was, and he was caught out as early as the exit of
the second corner, when he was trying to hold of Adam Carroll.
The back end snapped away from him, and the Super Nova car
spun into the barrier. Although damage was superficial, he
could not continue.
Lucas started from 14th and kept out of trouble in the early
laps as he made good progress up the field with the Durango
car. He soon got up to an impressive fifth place, before he
lost control just past the point where Jose had gone off.
He spun nose first into the tyre wall.
There is a gap of two weeks before the next race in Istanbul,
where with luck the weather will be a little kinder!
Jose Maria Lopez: ‘The conditions
were very difficult, and I haven't done many kilometres in
the rain. I arrived in the second corner, and I was watching
Adam Carroll very closely. I managed to keep my position.
As I shifted to third on the exit I was so gentle on the throttle,
and suddenly the car was gone, and I couldn't do anything.
In these conditions you never know what can happen, but we
had a pretty good chance today from the first row if it was
going to be dry. We didn't have the greatest weekend here,
but Turkey was quite good for me last year, and I qualified
third. I hope I can win a race before the end of the year.'
Lucas di Grassi: ‘When it's wet the
cars are a little more equal. I started 14th, and we had a
good pace. I had to go on the limit to try to overtake people,
and it was pretty good. I was running fifth by lap 12 when
I made a mistake and I spun. It was a shame because I didn't
make any mistakes before that, and I was just keeping my pace.
I think we should have finished in the points. Let's see for
Istanbul. We will have a hard tyre there, and the last time
we used it was in Silverstone, and we were good. So I expect
to be quick there, even if I don't know the circuit.'
|
