06/04/14 A disappointing Sprint Race for Racing Engineering today in Bahrain.
	The conditions for today’s 23 lap Sprint Race were very similar to yesterday’s Feature Race with air and track temperatures of 29° and 52° respectively. Stefano Coletti was starting from 5th on the reversed grid after finishing 4th the day before while Raffaele Marciello was in 18th as a result of his Saturday misfortunes. With no mandatory pitstop today all the cars were starting in the hard compound Pirelli tyres. As the lights went off Stefano stalled as Nasr made a very slow getaway from pole position and he had to be pushed into the pits to have his car restarted and he resumed the race in 25th place some 70 seconds behind the car in front with all hopes of a good result ruined. On lap 3 Stefano set the fastest lap of the race so far 1:45.753s to show that he had not given up and he continued to push hard and for much of the race the young Monegasque was the fastest car on the track but he was unable to finish higher than 23rd at the flag. Lello also stalled on the grid and he too had to be pushed into the pits to be restarted and he resumed the race in 26th and last position already a lap behind the rest of the field. With no chance of scoring any points the young Italian used the race to help increase his knowledge of racing a GP2 car and using his Pirelli tyres over a full race distance and he crossed the line in 24th place. A very disappointing day for Racing Engineering today but both Stefano and Lello were able to show a very good race pace, as they did in the Feature Race. The Racing Engineering team will now return to their Sanlúcar de Barrameda base to prepare for the second round of the 2014 GP2 series at Barcelona on the 10th and 11th of May.
	Team Comments: Thomas Couyotopoulo, Sporting Director of Racing Engineering: “This was a very disappointing weekend in terms of results, especially when we saw in both races that both cars and drivers have a big, big potential in regards to their race pace, consistency and balance. Unfortunately the procedure didn’t go well and the drivers stalled on the grid and that was it for the possibility of grabbing points today. But both drivers showed a very, very strong pace during the races and we have to work on the details now to have it right in Barcelona and put it all together and use the performance and potential that is there to score a lot of points.” Rafaele Marciello: “It went really badly today as I stalled at the start. At least we know the car is really, really fast, but at the end I was one lap down. So for Barcelona we have a lot of potential as the car is fast, but we have to use it. My problem is the start and we have to work on that now. We will do better in Barcelona for sure.” Stefano Coletti:: “Unfortunately I stalled at the start. Then I did the whole race alone at the back. The car was really, really quick and very consistent, very easy to drive. Very disappointing as today there could have been big points for us, but the championship is long. We saw it last year, especially me, I had a big advantage and then finished 5th in the championship. We know we have a quick car, especially in the race, and if we take away the bad luck and mistakes, we’ll be ahead, that’s for sure.”