The Racing Engineering team had a disappointing start at the 2007 GP2 series in Bahrain. Hopes were high at the start of the day that, after the hard work of the team following the problems encountered by both drivers in the Friday Qualifying.
Villa made a good start and was soon involved in some hard battles for position but after only a handful of laps his engine suffered a major failure and the Repsol driver was forced to pull off the track trailing clouds of smoke.
For Sergio Jimenez things went a little better, despite having to start from the pits following clutch problems, something that several other drivers also suffered from in the high ambient temperatures. Jimenez was making steady progress through the field, but two laps from the finish he was forced to retire as his engine eventually succumbed to having to run too hot. A poor reward for the team after all their hard work but nobody at Racing Engineering let these problems get them down and both cars were back on the grid today ready to go with both drivers looking to have a competitive race.
Alfonso D’Orleans:
I am quite upset considering the amount of work that has been put in by the team and the good performances by both drivers. We felt there was a problem with Javier’s engine before the start of the race but we were assured by Mecachrome that everything was in order, sadly the engine failed after only a few laps. We are sure that if Javier had not retired he would have been in the points, perhaps he would have been on pole for tomorrow’s race. Sergio suffered from overheating from the start possibly as a result of a punctured radiator; his engine was running at 124 degrees on the grid, this caused him a substantial power loss during the race. Despite this problem his was in 12th place until he started to fall back as things worsened. The team will be working all night to change both engines and we will be ready to race again tomorrow.’
Javier Villa:
I was going quite well, getting closer to Borja and his teammate when my engine failed. We had already warned Mecachrome about it not sounding right and not running well and, at the end, it just went off. A shame as our strategy was to do the pit stop a bit later in the race to get some clean laps and this would have allowed us to push more. Now everything is more difficult for tomorrow as we are starting 21 st and given that there isn’t pitstop in the sprint race we’d have to push as much as we can right from the start .
Sergio Jimenez:
I had a problem at the start with the clutch due to the heat; luckily for me so did several other drivers so the start was delayed. I was pushed to the pits and the team restarted the engine and I started the race from the pits. The car was OK on the opening laps and I made my pitstop on lap 3 but then the car began to be affected by understeer from the tenth lap. I felt I could still have a good finish but my engine problems were getting worse and with 6 laps to go the engine broke, I tried to keep it running to make the finish but two laps from the finish I had to pull off. The team will be working very hard to get my car ready for tomorrow’s race.
Second raceIt was a much happier day today for Racing Engineering following on from the engine-related disappointments of yesterday. The team worked all night on both cars in order to have them ready for today’s race and both cars lined up on the grid looking as good as new. The start of the race was hectic with several cars being involved in an incident at the first corner on the opening lap, fortunately both Racing Engineering cars managed to get through the melee unscathed. The Pace Car was called onto the track whilst the debris was cleared but no sooner had the cars restarted than a further incident saw the Pace Car back on the track.
Both Javier Villa and Sergio Jimenez refused to be ruffled by these incidents and both drivers were soon climbing up the field from their lowly grid slots caused by yesterday’s retirements. Javier Villa was driving with a great combination of pace and aggression setting some really good lap times. For many laps he was involved in a great battle with Campos Grand Prix driver Vitaly Petrov until a great passing manoeuvre around the outside of Petrov saw Javi settle the battle and move up to the 10th place where he finished the race.
Sergio Jimenez belied his lack of experience by avoiding the incidents on the opening laps and soon began to gain positions. Unfortunately he began to find his brake pedal going soft as his brakes suffered in the high ambient temperatures which restricted his pace. However within a few laps his race was over when on lap 10 he was forced to retire when a stone punctured his radiator and his engine overheated.
Alfonso D’Orleans (team principal):
Firstly I must congratulate the team on the superb job they did in ensuring both our cars were ready to race, they worked all night to prepare them. Javi drove a great race after starting so far back and being delayed and he did really well to finish 10th.
Sergio also drove really well considering his lack of familiarity with both the track and the car; I think he is a fantastic newcomer. Although the weekend was generally disappointing I think the team showed enormous potential. As ever I want to thank our main sponsors Repsol and Telefonica.
Javier Villa:
It was hard having to start from 21 st on the grid and I lost time with all the cars spinning at the start. The car was good and I was setting some fast sector times but overtaking was difficult, but despite this I managed to finish 10th.
Sergio Jimenez:
I had some problems at the start with my clutch but I was able to make a reasonable start, the car wasn’t too bad in the opening laps but I began to suffer from a soft brake pedal in the heat and after 10 laps I had to pull off the track with overheating problems after a stone punctured a radiator.
