Second for Lopez, fastest lap for di Grassi
Jose Maria Lopez took a fine second place in the Hockenheim
sprint event after leading all but the last lap of the race.
Unfortunately tyre problems meant that the Renault Driver
Development squad member was unable to defend his position
and had to cede the lead at the very last moment. Meanwhile
Lucas di Grassi set the fastest lap after a nightmare weekend
of mechanical problems.
Having finished seventh in the Saturday race Jose started
from second in the Super Nova car. On the first lap he got
the better of a spectacular battle with pole man Clivio Piccione,
and having got into the lead opened up a healthy gap. However
in the latter stages of the race he began to lose grip, and
left front tyre wear began to make life difficult for him.
On the last lap Timo Glock got a run on Jose going into Turn
2, and was able to squeeze past. By way of consolation he
got the bonus point for fastest lap by a classified finisher.
He now has 29 points and is seventh in the championship.
After failing to start yesterday's race after an engine problem
Lucas started from the back of the grid with a fresh engine
fitted in the Durango car. His aim was to earn the fastest
lap bonus, and he duly set the quickest lap early in the race.
However the engine then cut out and he had to park at the
side of the track. Because Lucas hadn't completed sufficient
distance, he missed out on the bonus point.
The GP2 Action resumes next week in Hungary.
Jose Maria Lopez: ‘The race was one
lap too long! I'm very angry but at the same time I feel OK,
because if I think about yesterday we were starting from the
last row, so to finish second today is still very good. But
I really wanted to win today. The first lap was very good.
Piccione came inside me at the hairpin like a crazy guy, he
was never going to turn there. He went straight and I turned
inside. The car was good and I started pulling away, but in
the last 10 laps it was really hard to keep up the pace, especially
when I was turning right. On the last lap I turned into the
first corner and I had so much understeer I had to wait and
wait, so Glock caught me. Unfortunately the second corner
is also a right corner, and the same thing happened. He had
just had better traction and grip, and when I went on the
throttle I nearly spun and got sideways. So he just went away.
We've been very competitive recently, so I'm looking for the
first win in Hungary.'
Lucas di Grassi: ‘It's not been the
team's weekend! I'm doing my job, and I put the car in the
top eight in qualifying. Today from the back my job was to
get fastest lap, it was the only thing I could do to gain
a point. I did by half a second, but I don't get a point because
we had a mechanical failure and I didn't finish. We don't
know what it is yet, the engine just stopped. I haven't raced
in Hungary before, but that doesn't really change anything.
If we have a good car, probably I can have a good race. The
car needs to be rebuilt and we need to check all the wiring
looms and so on to make sure we don't have any more problems.'
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