Bienvenidos al primer fin de semana de la nueva temporada!
Ready for a Spanish lesson? Ok, ok, understood. So we continue in English.
Oh yes! It just feels amazing to be at a race track again. Wednesday, the usual day for setting everything up, had already a little surprise for by friends at Racing Engineering. With GP3 being born, space has become a scarce resource in the paddock. Everything just got a bit tighter, it seems – more cars, more people, more excitement!
How would Christian, GP2’s best spirit (not that I would want to annoy anyone, so let’s say all the others are “good” spirits, ok?), fit all those people under the hospitality awning? Have to check this out quickly…oh! OH! Now that looks fancy! Two top notch tents with plenty of space to put the food on display (can’t wait for the first meals to be served). And there they are! Everyone back and looking busy: Alexa and David (having their own little work tent…just next to the kitchen – I would love that, too. But I guess they are not so happy about this.); Christian and his fine crew of people making those weekends as pleasant as possible – from a nutritional point of view; all the GP2 staff, oh, sorry, GP2 and GP3 staff. It’s good to see them all and I heard that this year’s championship launch would take place at the Auditori of Granollers. 
And there I was, obviously, on Thursday. But also all GP2 drivers, GP3 drivers and … wooohoooo… GP2 graduates Bruno Senna, Karun Chandhok, Vitaly Petrov and Eric Boullier joined in as well. Yes, for 2010, GP2 didn’t only supply F1 with drivers, but also with team managers. Cool, isn’t it? Missed some of the bit bigger names though. Where was Lucas? Where was Lewis, Nico, Nico 2, etc.? But, guess what! There was Schumacher! Hmmm? No! Not what you think, not the one driving for Mercedes GP, multiple F1 World Champion…but his brother Ralf. I think I heard he was somehow involved in one of the GP3 teams. Oh, well. So here I was, overlooking the entire auditorium, checking out a lot of new faces and …oh, my goodness!!!… drums…many of them…my little ears are…in pain…Alexa, was this your idea??? I mean…hmmm…yeah…cool, and definitely waking everyone up, who thought he might take advantage and take a little nap while the lights were turned down. These drums…they had something about them, no doubt. Now, with everyone awake, the GP2 and GP3 drivers were presented, pictures taken, speeches held, etc. Well, and in case someone was not able to fight against being tired from the last days of preparing the first round, the drums came back on stage again. Just in case you wouldn’t want to get up from your comfortable chair, just in case … those drums were guiding you out. Please don’t get me wrong, they were really cool, if we were outside …and on a mission through the jungle.
Friday! First free practice and qualifying of the season. And both went well for Dani and Chris. Chris qualified in 4th position and Dani in 7th. Not bad, not bad at all. And everyone was looking forward to Saturday’s race. I was sooo excited and couldn’t wait for the red lights to turn off and the 24 cars to start the race. Chris had an AMAZING start! Ok, the two ART cars didn’t get off the line too well, so Chris was just cruising by. However, turn one was the German’s “from hero to zero”-moment. I mean, I have checked the vid over and over again, sitting on Christian’s shoulder. Perez, who closed on Christian and therefore made him spin, had no need to do so. Just stay on the normal line, Sergio! You would have gone into turn 2 as leader anyway! But by trying to close on Chris, he not only turned the car of my friend around, but also took Bianchi out of the race as well, who crashed into Christian. And Bird, trying to avoid all this mess faced the same fate like Dani. They both went over the curbs and damaged their cars. Dani was able to continue and had an amazing race, which he finished on the podium!!! And there I was, accompanying my Spanish friend up the stairs to pick up his trophy. Oh, there was the president of the Spanish Federation (I heard him earlier in the day when he said that if Dani was on the podium, he would stay for the ceremony) handing over Dani’s cup. And now…oh! I think Dani had tears in his eyes, as others in the team did as well. Yes, I know that this podium meant so much to so many people and I had to put my sunglasses on as …well… so much happiness made my eyes shiny as well.
Christian, on the other hand was understandingly disappointed. But the boys in the team did a great job in bringing up his moral for Sunday’s race. But starting from the last row was merely practice for him to get ready for more races as only the first six to cross the finish line score points. Dani, having finished 3rd on Saturday, started the race from 6th position and scored again in Sunday’s sprint race. Way to go, way to go…!
Packing up in Barcelona was the next point on the list. I was happy everyone planned to drive over to Monaco, as the Icelandic volcano decided to heavily interfere with Europe’s airspace again. As the boys were leaving Monday, I heard Alfonso mention that he would leave the same day and took my chance to have some relaxing days at the gaming tables of the Monaco casino and jumped into the silver colored car and off we went to the Côte d’Azur. Before they left, Alfonso, Ines and Chris picked up Christian’s driving coach, Enzo, who was stuck at the Barcelona airport. It was a fun ride over to Monaco.
Speak to you soon!
Your fly on the Wall.
