Things get more difficult for Lucas di Grassi
The RDD driver retired from the Saturday race in the final
2007 GP2 Series showdown in Valencia, Spain. His rival finished
7th and is now leading the Championship by four points.
The Renault Driver Development squad member had a difficult
first race in the final showdown of this season's GP2 Series
Championship after he retired this Saturday in Valencia. This
morning, he qualified 7th at three tenth from the poleman
Nakajima. Timo Glock, Lucas' rival for the prestigious title,
qualified in second place.
"It was a close session this morning. I couldn't find
a clear track on such a busy circuit. However, after qualifying,
I believed that anything was still possible starting from
7th."
It rained on the Spanish track thirty minutes before the
start of the race. As the track was really damp, Lucas chose
to put wet tyres when some other drivers preferred slick tyres.
The RDD driver made a great start and was up to third place
when he was pushed out of the track. He managed to come back
but he was then in 9th place. As the track dried, the drivers
with slick tires were much faster than him. Lucas was 14th
when he pitted in order to switch to slick tires as well.
"I was loosing too much time to those in slick tires.
We had to make a decision, so we chose to change to slick."
However, as soon as Lucas went back out, it rained some more.
He was then 22nd and his German rival was in 5th place. The
Brazilian had no other choice but to put his head down and
take some risks. Unfortunately, on lap 9, he made a mistake
and had to retire.
"It is so frustrating! I had to go flat out as Timo
was so far away. That's how I made a mistake… We were
out of luck today: it was impossible to predict whether it
was going to rain again. In our position, we had to take risks."
Tomorrow, Lucas di Grassi will start from 22nd when Timo
Glock will start from 2nd on the reversed grid.
"If I want to win the title, I will have to score five
points more than Timo. It sounds almost impossible, but once
again, I'll try my best and push hard in order to have absolutely
no regret."
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