24/05/14 A great recovery and fastest lap for Stefano in today's Monaco Sprint Race.
	After yesterday’s Feature Race Raffaele Marciello was starting from 12th place and Stefano Coletti was way back in 19th, following his late race incident. The weather was once again sunny with air and track temperatures of 17° and 34° respectively, the track being the hottest it had been for the last three days, all the cars would be racing on Pirelli’s P Zero Yellow soft compound for the 30 lap race. As the cars left the grid Stefano was immediately passing cars at every available opportunity and by the end of lap 1 he had passed an incredible 6 cars to lie 13th. On lap 2 the Racing Engineering car passed Rossi for 12th and he was 11th the next lap and 10th three laps later. The young Monegasque was really flying on his home track and on lap 9 he set the fastest lap of the race so far with a 1:23.331s. By lap 12 Stefano was just 0.4 seconds behind Daly and he was now involved in a big battle for 4th with just four seconds separating eight cars. The Safety Car was deployed on lap 14 following an accident at Saint Devote with racing resuming two laps later with all the cars now closely bunched together. Stefano was now pressing Daly hard but with Rossi right behind he had to make sure he made no mistakes and with three laps to go the pressure paid off and he passed the American for 9th, but there was not enough time left to pass any more cars and he crossed the finish line still in 9th but taking two points for the fastest lap. Lello got away well gaining a place on the first lap to be 11th but on lap 3 he made a small mistake at the hairpin when attempting to overtake De Jong which resulted in a drive-through penalty. The young Italian took his penalty on lap 6 resuming in 20th place five seconds behind Trummer and a similar distance ahead of Binder. The Safety Car incident caused the cars to close up and there was a huge line of cars from 4th to 21st separated by less than 10 seconds which made it almost impossible for anybody to make a pass so Lello had to settle for 19th at the flag. Yet again both Racing Engineering drivers have proved to be quick in qualifying and racing without being able to show anything in the way of results but it can only be a matter of time before their luck changes. The next round of the 2014 GP2 Series will be in one month’s time at Spielberg in Austria.
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	Team Comments: Thomas Lassus, Race Engineer: “We finally scored some points, but it’s far away from what we expected and the potential we had. We hope that from now on all our efforts and good pace will be translated into points consistently for both cars. Consistency in results is the way to come back to the ranking we deserve.” Rafaele Marciello: “At the start the driver in front of me stalled and when I tried to avoid contact with him Daly overtook me. During the opening lap I passed one more car and was in P11 when I passed De Jong to take tenth place. I received a drive-through penalty, which I find a bit harsh. After going through the pitlane I rejoined the race in 20th position and there was little I could still do. I finished in 19th place behind Trummer.” Stefano Coletti:: “I had a good start but needed to brake on the straight as two cars almost hit each other. Some cars passed me, but I was able to recover positions. The first lap of the race was really good and I passed cars in Mirabeau, the hairpin and the chicane. The car was perfect and quick, giving me the opportunity to take the two points for fastest lap in the race.”
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