Another podium for Racing Engineering at Silverstone

10/07/11 Another podium for Racing Engineering at Silverstone.

As the lights went off for today’s 21 lap Sprint Race both Racing Engineering drivers made great starts as Dani Clos passed pole sitter Van der Garde to take the lead and Christian Vietoris moved ahead of Ericsson to move up 5th....

As the lights went off for today’s 21 lap Sprint Race both Racing Engineering drivers made great starts as Dani Clos passed pole sitter Van der Garde to take the lead and Christian Vietoris moved ahead of Ericsson to move up 5th.

Clos quickly pulled out a half second gap on Van der Garde whilst Vietoris was 1.5 seconds behind Bird and one second ahead of Bianchi. Over the next 5 laps the gap between Clos and Van der Garde remained at about 0.5 seconds as the two drivers seemed equally fast and the pair of them moved slowly away from Grosjean in 3rd. Vietoris was in a similar position to Clos in 5th lapping at very similar times to Bird who was ahead of him and Ericsson who was now following, so the gaps between the three cars was remaining constant.

By lap 10 things were getting really close at the front of the field with the gap between Clos in 1st place and Vietoris in 5th being just over four seconds. Lap 14, just past half distance, saw Clos leading Van Der Garde by almost a second with Vietoris slowly dropping away from Bird as he was now involved in a very close battle with Ericsson.

Things changed on lap 15 as Grosjean succeeded in passing Van Der Garde and immediately closed in on Clos and on the next lap he managed to pass the young Spaniard demoting him to second. Vietoris also lost a place on the same lap as Ericsson pushed him down to 6th and lap 17 saw Vietoris loose another place to Bianchi dropping the young German to 7th.

Clos was now involved in a very close battle with Van der Garde and Bird, until the British driver was passed by Ericsson on lap 18. Clos was now leading Van Der Garde by 0.5 seconds with Ericsson a further 0.8 seconds down the road. Vietoris was now at the front of a large group of cars with just two seconds between the Racing Engineering car in 7th and Filippi in 11th.

As the cars entered their final lap Clos continued to battle with Van Der Garde but he held off the Addax car by 0.7 seconds to take an excellent 2nd, similarly Vietoris held off his pursuers to finish 7th.

With two second places from the weekend’s races Racing Engineering can return to Spain well pleased with the hard work done by both the team and its two drivers and they can look forward to the next round at the Nürburgring in two weeks’ time.

Team Quotes:

Dani Clos: “I made a very good start today and found a nice gap. I wanted to attack at the beginning of the race, having a good rhythm. I turn 3 I had a little contact with van der Garde, but I was able to keep my position. Towards the end I made a little mistake and locked my wheels. This meant my rhythm dropped a bit and Grosjean was just faster than everyone else today. The second position is something positive for me and the team and we will continue to push and improve every day.”

Christian Vietoris: “We generally had a good weekend; also today's race was not too bad. I had a good start and a good first lap, allowing me to move up to P4. Yesterday we decided to use different set ups on the two cars and in my case the front tyres were suffering. We had a good weekend and now we have to work on how we use the tyres. I am looking forward to the next races at the Nürburgring and hope to continue with the good results we achieved this weekend at Silverstone.”

Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón, president of Racing Engineering: “Well done to Dani for the great start and podium finish today. He drove a brilliant race. A pity about flat spotting the tyres, which cost him some speed during the closing laps, but he did an amazing job today. We now have two podiums in two races this weekend, so I think the hard work has paid off. On Christian's car we opted for a different solution today, but it did not allow him to also fight for a podium. Pity, since he would have also done a great job like yesterday. We now have to prepare for Nürburgring, Christian's home race. Our only objective now is a win. Well done to everyone in the team. Good job!”

GP2 Series: Dani, P2 today after a tough race: how was it for you?

Dani Clos: We started the race a little bit aggressive, and I knew that Giedo was going to be really quick so at the beginning I tried to attack: I saw the space in the third corner but it was not possible, and then I got it in the fourth. After that we had a really good rhythm, I felt really happy with the car. With just 7 laps I did a mistake where I locked up the tyres, the front left, and then the rhythm was not the same, Romain had a really good car and he drove well, so he won, I was second, and it's okay.

GP2 Series: You've had some troubles with the tyres this year: how were they for you today?

Dani: Yeah, they were good, good, good: I was happy, we've done a good job in that way, the team has been working hard and myself too. After a tough weekend, because it's been a tough weekend for me in many aspects, we've got a nice podium, good points: that's good because we need them! It can only go better.

GP2 Series: And two podiums for the team is a nice reward for the boys in the team, too...

Dani: Absolutely, that's really good: I really appreciate the work they do, and they deserve so much more too!