GP2 Series – Hungarian races – Hungaroring
The Italian Repsol driver keeps his lead in the overall classification, whilst the Spaniard driver is sixtenth.
RACE 1
A difficult day for the Racing Engineering and Repsol drivers. In the long race on the Saturday at the Hungaroring Giorgio Pantano was involved in an incident at the start of the race, and Javier Villa was conditioned by his low grid position after the problems he had the day before during the classification.
The race, a scheduled 42 laps, started cleanly with all the cars getting away without any problems. Giorgio began well from 8th position on the grid, and moved up two places in spite of making slight contact with another car on the opening lap. And so he found himself behind his big rival in the race at Hockenheim, Romain Grosjean. The Racing Engineering and Repsol driver immediately began to put pressure on the ART driver, and he soon went off the track into an escape lane, the Italian took good advantage of this mistake to pass him. But when Grosjean returned to the track he touched the rear end of Giorgio`s car and made the Dallara de Racing Engineering spin. Giorgio had to wait a few seconds until he had enough space between the traffic to get back in the race, but he was in 22nd position behind Asmer.
So Racing Engineering then opted to change Giorgio`s pit stop as it was the best chance of giving him some space for a free run allowing him make up as much time as possible of what he had lost. The car sponsored by Repsol started to speed up the lap times and on lap four Giorgio was already 20th and was closing in on Herck. On the tenth Giorgio was right behind Filippi in 18th position, and on the following lap the Arden driver lost control of his car and Giorgio recovered another position. Six laps later the Italian was 16th, driving behind his teammate Villa. Realising that Giorgio had a better pace Javi did not stand in his way and let the other Racing Engineering car through and on lap 18 the car number 12 was 15th. Giorgio then got close to Rodríguez, and was soon past him and moving away from him but he was still too far from the leaders to make up more positions, and so he had to make do with 14th place at the end of the race, moving over to let his teammate overtake him towards the end of the race.
For Javier Villa the race was more or less disappointing. He started in 18th position on the grid and lost four places there as he was blocked in by the car in front of him as it started very slowly, and at the same time he noticed, just like yesterday, that his clutch was not working correctly. Anyway Javi recovered quickly and moved up to 19th on the second lap, and on the fourth was 18th and close to Filippi.
The Racing Engineering and Repsol driver used the same race strategy with Javi as with Giorgio and he soon made a pitstop, and like his teammate it was a quick and efficient one, the team putting the driver quickly back on track. Javi found himself following Rodríguez, who was 14th and just 0.38 seconds behind him on lap 13. A small error on lap 17 made Javi misjudge a corner but he was not overtaken, and he had his teammate Giorgio tucked in behind him – he was allowed to pass a little later and so Javi was left in 16th position. On the following seven laps Javi was not able to get past Rodríguez, but the latter eventually succumbed to the pressure, he span and so Javi moved up to 14th. Javi was then in the same situation as his teammate, too far from the leaders to move up in the classification, and so he concentrated on finishing the race, he finished 13th after overtaking Giorgio towards the end.
RACE 2
Excellent result for the Racing Engineering and Repsol team in the second race, the sprint around the circuit of the Hungaroring. Giorgio Pantano and Javier Villa fought back from their positions in the middle of the grid to finish 5th and 6th, and to win three points for the team.
Starting 13th and 14th because of the results in yesterday`s race the two Repsol drivers made a magnificent start overtakig from the very beginning. At the end of the first lap Javier was 8th and Giorgio was just behind him; the two having overtaken several other drivers on the opening lap, and at the same time taking perfect advantage of the spaces they found just ahead of them, as D’Ambrosio and Chandhock had not done the formation lap.
On the third lap Di Grassi and Conway`s cars, fighting for third position, grazed each other and the Briton was put into a spin, in a flash he was overtaken by, among others, Villa and Pantano, who moved up into 7th and 8th places. The two drivers of the cars sponsored by Repsol were moving in tandem and got close to Yamamoto, a Japanese driver. At the start of the 15th lap Javi went into the home straight a little too wide and Giorgio overtook him, Zuber tried to do the same but the Spaniard fended him off with a spectacular manoeuvre at the end of the straight, where for a split second the three cars – driven by Pantano, Villa and Zuber – were alongside each other.
After the resolution of this interesting battle in favour of the two Racing Engineering and Repsol Team drivers, Giorgio was 7th just over one second behind Yamamoto, and with Javi following in his teammate`s wake, whilst the two got away from Zuber. On lap twelve, the two Repsol drivers moved up another position as Di Grassi was penalised with a ‘drive through’, because of his previous incident with Conway, this meant Pantano was sixth and so among the points.
During the next few laps the race situation became more stable, with the two Dallara in formation always close behind Yamamoto, although without quite being able to catch him, but comfortably keeping Zuber and Kobayashi at bay behind them. With four laps left Maldonado`s retirement, because of mechanical problems, meant that both Giorgio and Javi moved up another place and so were among the first six over the line, finishing 5th and 6th at the end of lap 28. Pantano won two points and mean that he stays at the top of the standings, and Villa got another point for himself as well as the Racing Engineering team, which with today`s haul of three points is in a stronger second place in the team champioship.
Today`s magnificent result, with the two drivers in the first six in a race that looked more than complicated for them, emphasises the excellent preparation of the cars by Racing Engineering and Repsol, the only team that won points with its two cars, meaning that at the same time the extraordinary 100% reliability record for the whole of the season is still intact. Now, the GP2 series has a short summer break, it returns in three weeks with the brand new race at the urban circuit of Valencia. The Racing Engineering and Repsol team will be hoping that the team`s two drivers once again finish among the best.
Javier Villa 13rd and 6th:
“I had more clutch problems. It began to slip on the formation lap and I had to do it slowly, not being able to prepare the start right. Owing to this the tyres were not at the right temperature and I lost time at the beginning of the race. As is usual this season, we have a well-balanced car, as you could see in the second half of the race, but with so many problems little could be done with it.”
“I made a good start and managed to get into the fight for 8th place. Then I was able to maintain a good rhythm in the race, and it got even better in the second half. I am convinced that I could have finished fourth but I stayed in sixth position.”
Giorgio Pantano 14th and 5th:
“We made a good start and we moved up towards the leaders. I overtook Grosjean when he made a mistake but he hit the back of my car and the car span and sent me to the middle of the pack. I tried to catch the others up but I could not do anything.”
“First of all I want to thank Javi as he allowed me to keep my position, even though today he was faster. After what happened yesterday, we got the maximum number of points that was possible when starting 14th, we won two.”
