After a complicated qualifying session on Friday, the Racing Engineering team knew that Saturday was going to be a challenge for its drivers. It was going to be vital to avoid any incident and concentrate on recovering as many places as possible from far back…
With the cars lined up on the main Silverstone straight after the warm-up lap, the start was aborted as Andy Soucek’s car stalled. Once the race started in earnest, Zuber, in pole, took the lead followed by Conway and di Grassi. Further back, both Javier Villa and Filipe Albuquerque had clean starts and immediately started the fight to pull back places.Javier Villa had understeer problems in his Dallara, but in spite of this was able to overtake rivals who started ahead of him on the grid.
Halfway through the race, the Repsol driver was already ahead of team-mate Filipe Albuquerque, who was nevertheless close to the number 14 car of the Spaniard. Javier Villa was still able to reach the duo of Zaugg and Yamamoto.The duel between these two ended up with both cars on the grass, and the Repsol drivers took advantage to steal two places.
But there was no time for more. Villa and Alburquerque had to settle for 12th and 13th position respectively.
Javier Villa
‘We had a lot of understeer from the start and this restricted us, as on this circuit, with 99% fast bends, when the car understeers you lose a lot of time if you are behind others. Even so we weren’t slow, as we ended up overtaking the five drivers we had ahead of us. We will try and resolve this problem for tomorrow, because I think we can do more.’
Filipe Albuquerque
‘The race was useful for me to get experience in the car and above all with the tyres. The greater power of GP2 you feel much more on the back wheels, and I have to get used to the wear on the tyres. Tomorrow we’ll be able to go better, starting from 15th and with the experience that we’ve gained today.’
Race 2After the first round on Saturday, the Racing Engineering team drivers lined up in 13th and 15th place on the grid. The clear sky and good weather has allowed the hard Bridgestone tyres of all the cars to work in optimum conditions.Filipe Albuquerque got off to a good start, holding his position, while Javier Villa had clutch problems and lost six places, finishing the first lap in 19th place.
In the next lap, Albuquerque lost a place, and one lap later, Villa moved up a slot. Both Repsol drivers moved up a further two places on the seventh lap, when Zaugg overbraked and hit Glock, taking both cars off the track. Soon, Filipe Albuquerque had cut back the lead of the Durango car driven by Chandhok to less than one second. However, Javier Villa could not continue progressing because of engine problems with the car.
The complicated nature of the Silverstone track, a circuit with fast adjoining bends, making it difficult to overtake, prevented Albuquerque from gaining further positions. Team-mate Villa saw the heating problems in the car continue, and went into boxes, where the mechanics discovered that the throwaway visor of another driver had covered his radiator. After removing the obstruction, the Repsol took to the track again, yet without any possibility of making further progress.The final laps were incident free, and Filipe Albuquerque passed the chequered flag in 14th place after a consistent drive, while Javier Villa came in 22nd place.
Javier Villa:
‘We had problems with the clutch at the start. The car almost stalled and that caused me to lose a lot of places. I was progressing well when the visor of another driver stuck on the radiator, causing the engine to heat up a lot. I went into boxes, they cleaned the radiator and I went back on the track but the car was still overheating, so in the end I stopped not to damage the engine.’
Filipe Albuquerque:
‘I had a good start, moving up a place and I was pushing it more than yesterday, going at almost the same pace as the group in front, with Pantano and other faster drivers. Halfway through the race I began to notice the way on the tyres and I could not keep up the same pace. In any event, even though the result has been very good, the truth is on this track you spend almost all the race in the same position as you started. I want to thank Alfonso D’Orleans and Racing Engineering for having given me this valuable experience driving in GP2′.
