Silverstone GP2 Qualifying

08/07/11 Both of Racing Engineering’s drivers qualify in the top 4.

Both this morning’s Free Practice session and this afternoon’s Qualifying were greatly affected by rain; however, despite the difficult conditions, Christian Vietoris will start tomorrow’s Feature Race from 3rd on the grid with Dani Clos right behind him in 4th....

Both this morning’s Free Practice session and this afternoon’s Qualifying were greatly affected by rain; however, despite the difficult conditions, Christian Vietoris will start tomorrow’s Feature Race from 3rd on the grid with Dani Clos right behind him in 4th.

The 30 minute Free Practice session started on a wet track with all the drivers opting for wet tyres but, as the cars dried the track, it was soon time to switch to the medium compound Pirelli tyres that are the choice for this weekend. Both of the Racing Engineering drivers concentrated on setting their cars up for the afternoon Qualifying session and at the end of the 30 minutes Vietoris had set the 12th fastest time with Clos 16th.

With rain threatening the afternoon qualifying session it was important to set a quick time as early as possible and both Vietoris and Clos were immediately on the pace with the German driver setting the 4th fastest time with his Spanish team-mate just one place lower in 5th.

The strategy of going for a fast time early on proved to be correct as torrential rain hit the Silverstone circuit just a few minutes after the start of the session. All the drivers returned to the pits to wait for the rain to stop but, once they were able to return to the track, standing water meant that a quick lap time was impossible.

The grid penalty applied to Grosjean, as a result of an infringement in the recent Valencia race, means that that both Vietoris and Clos are promoted one place and will be starting tomorrow’s race from the second row so a podium finish is the aim for both men. However, with the possibility of more rain to come, the Feature Race may well prove to be a lottery.

Team Quotes:

Dani Clos: “We used the morning session to try out different solutions and had some things to verify. We are quite satisfied with the qualifying session. It was complicated as we had the changing weather conditions and even though we were not having that super lap, we are able to be in the front. This is very positive and the objective is to score as many points as possible in tomorrow's race. We will continue our work, continue to push.”

Christian Vietoris: “The first 5-10 minutes of today's qualifying session were decisive and we were quickly adapting to the track and circumstances during these first minutes. After heavy rain set in and it was clear that it might be almost impossible to improve the lap time. We have a good starting position for tomorrow's race as Grosjean has a grid penalty and I move up to P3. We are well prepared and on a good way. Now we have to work on the preparation of tomorrow's race.”

Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón, president of Racing Engineering: “With the changing conditions, the drivers did a fantastic job putting a good lap together so we locked out the second row of the grid for tomorrow. It was not easy, but they managed to get it right at the right moment. I want to also thank everyone in the team for a good job done. Now we have to get ready for tomorrow, which will surely be an exciting race.”