| Saturday, November 12, 2011 11:49AM |
Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi
Saturday 12th November 2011
Feature Race:
Luiz Razia P2
Alexander Rossi P13
Alexander Rossi moved up to tenth place in the opening laps of the race from fourteenth on the grid. Tyre degradation pushed the team into an early pit stop on lap eight and thereafter his pace was good amongst the mid-field cars, finally bringing the car home safely in thirteenth place.
Team Manager Phill Spencer: “I am so pleased for Luiz and all the team to record a second place podium here – it’s just a great feeling for the whole team! I am a little disappointed for Alexander but I think he has learnt a lot today and I hope he enjoyed the race nonetheless. He has shown he’s a got lot of character and confidence on track - he kept the car clean and in one piece so I am happy with his performance as well. As for tomorrow, we will go into the race with fresh new tyres on a level playing field so I look forward to seeing what we can do in the final race of the year!”
Alexander Rossi (Best time 1:52.625 / Best Lap: 11/ P13 “We have been struggling a little with brake issues since first practice and this is where I was losing most of my time today. I was working my rear tyres a lot harder than we wanted to in order to protect the fronts and the braking, which in turn put more temperature through them and caused more wear. Despite that, after my pit stop my pace was ok but I got stuck in traffic and wasn’t able to capitalise in the braking zones where the passing opportunities come about, so I was not able to defend or go defensive, but I know we will have this sorted in time for the race tomorrow.”
Chief Engineer Humphrey Corbett “Luiz controlled it very well today. He made a really good start and was rewarded with a fantastic result. He now has the experience and knows how to look after the tyres so after a fruitless race here earlier this year, and after a difficult test in Barcelona, he has regrouped and is back where he should be. His car was faultless and the team did good pit stops so I am very pleased for them. With Alexander I think the result today was a lot down to tyre management. He did have a different set up to Luiz so we will be looking into this in more depth before the race tomorrow, but we had to pit him early due to high degradation to his rear tyres. I think this has been a steep learning curve for him. He is very keen and this is his first proper race with Pirelli tyres so there is a lot to learn. It doesn’t help being in the middle of everyone but he managed to gain positions and held his own during the race, so I look forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow. ”
GP2 Schedule:
Sunday: 1330hrs Race 2 (1315 – 1320 pit lane open)
Ends
Source: Caterham AirAsia GP2 Team Press Office
Fan Response:
