The very hot weather that the GP2 teams had experienced in Germany last week continued this morning for the free practice session at the Hungaroring with air and track temperatures of 25° and 51° respectively. Pirelli were once again supplying the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft tyre and for the 45 minute morning session the teams were using the medium compound.
Stefano was quickly on the pace with a time of 1:31.296s to lie 8th and with eleven minutes gone he improved to 1:30.570s to move up to 6th. Lello was a little slower on 1:31.669s as he learnt the circuit, this being his first visit to the Hungarian circuit. After 18 minutes of the session nearly all the cars returned to the pits, including both of the Racing Engineering cars, to allow the teams to make some setup adjustments before returning to the track with approximately 22 minutes of the session remaining. Both Stefano and Lello continued to lap the track without setting a quick time as both men worked with the Racing Engineering team on their race setups for tomorrow and both men returned to the pits with 12 minutes of the session remaining. With just over 6 minutes still to go Stefano and Lello returned to the track but they did not improve on their earlier fastest times of 1:30.512s and 1:30.691s respectively.
The weather was similar to the morning for the afternoon qualifying session with air and track temperatures of 27° and 52° respectively and the cars were now fitted with the Pirelli soft compound option as the drivers fought for grid positions for tomorrow’s race. All the cars took to the track as the pit exit light turned green and Stefano’s first flying lap was 1:29.320s, faster than his morning time, which put him 6th and he immediately improved to 1:29.139s. Lello was also flying and with 10 minutes gone the young Italian set a 1:28.932s, nearly two seconds faster than his morning time, to be 5th.
As the session reached the halfway point most of the cars returned to the pits for some final adjustments before trying for that final quick lap that would determine their grid position. With just nine minutes remaining the cars left the pits and although both Stefano and Lello pushed hard and set some fast sector times they were unable to improve on their earlier laps leaving Lello in 8th, which will become 7th following a penalty given to Cecotto, and Stefano back in 15th.
Whilst neither driver will be content with their grid positions for tomorrow’s 37 lap Feature Race both of the Racing Engineering drivers have been very fast in recent races and both men will still be aiming for the podium and, remembering that in Germany the Feature race winner started from 15th position, anything is still possible. |
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Team Comments:
Thomas Couyotopoulo, Sporting Director of Racing Engineering: “We had a very insightful free practice session but the qualifying results were not what we were aiming for. Lello, for his first time in Hungary, actually did a good job around the tricky Hungaroring, but he was impeded by Evans in the second to last corner of a lap which could have potentially been good for P2. Stefano didn’t manage to get the most out of the car in today’s qualifying and P15 is obviously disappointing for all of us. We are analysing the data of the session to best prepare for tomorrow's feature race, which be interesting will for sure as the tyres will be put under a lot of stress and traffic is always an issue at this track.”
Rafaele Marciello: “Qualifying wasn’t bad for us today even though I had some traffic, but it was the first time I have raced at this track. We were able to do better than this, but the race is long and we will see what will happen.”
Stefano Coletti:: “This wasn’t a great qualifying. I didn’t put a lap together, we have a much better potential and will work for tomorrow’s race now.” |
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