It was warm and sunny today for the 28 lap Sprint Race with air and track temperatures of 18° and 34° respectively. Following yesterday’s Feature Race when the Racing Engineering drivers, Raffaele Marciello and Stefano Coletti, finished an excellent 3rd and 4th the two men would be starting from 5th (Stefano) and 6th (Lello).
As the lights went off Lello made a great start and although he went a little wide in turn one he held 3rd place with his teammate Stefano right behind him as the two men battled for position. By lap 2 the Racing Engineering car was 1.7 seconds behind Rossi and 0.9 ahead of Stefano and over the next three laps he set two fastest laps as he closed in on the Caterham car and on lap six, as the two drivers entered turn two, Lello dived up the inside and the two cars ran side-by-side into turn three but the young Italian had the racing line and he took 2nd place. Lello now began to close on race leader Cecotto setting more fastest laps and by lap 14 he was just 0.5 seconds behind the Venezuelan but he was now starting struggling with tyre wear following his early fast laps.
On lap 19, as Lello’s lap times began to drop off, he lost second place to his teammate in turn 2 and he now concentrated on keeping 3rd position from a chasing Evans. By lap 24 Lello had dropped 4.3 seconds behind his Stefano and Evans was now just 0.7 seconds behind as the Racing Engineering driver fought hard to keep his podium position. The last few laps were very intense with Evans closing right in on Lello and twice the Russian Time driver got ahead but each time Lello kept his head and immediately repassed the New Zealander to take his second podium of the weekend.
Stefano made a good start and although he too ran wide in turn one he took 4th place right behind Lello and he tried to pass his teammate on the opening lap but couldn’t find a way ahead. Over the next few laps Stefano concentrated on pulling away from Evans and preserving his tyres for later in the race. By lap 16 the young Italian had closed right in on his teammate and, as Lello lost some time after briefly running wide, Stefano made his move into turn three passing his teammate around the outside.
Stefano now began to close on race leader Cecotto and on lap 22 he set the fastest race lap so far of 1:16.629s as he moved to just 1.1 seconds behind and the Racing Engineering car now began to close the gap corner by corner. With just four laps remaining Stefano was right on the back of Cecotto’s car and pushing him hard into every corner. With one lap left Stefano was still 0.5 seconds behind and although he managed to almost get alongside the Trident car there just wasn’t enough time and he had to settle for 2nd at the flag.
After all their recent bad luck Racing Engineering have had a great weekend at the Red Bull Ring with a second, two thirds and a fourth in the two races. The Spanish team will now concentrate on preparing for the fifth round of the 2014 GP2 Series to be held at Silverstone in two weeks. |
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Team Comments:
Thomas Couyotopoulo, Sporting Director of Racing Engineering: “A very strong result from both cars today. Lello had a very good start and pushed hard during the entire race. As he didn’t start on new tyres, he suffered a bit during the closing laps, and had to give up his second place in favour of his team mate. He defended very well from Evans during this stage of the race and celebrated an excellent second podium this weekend. Stefano had a more reasonable pace during the first part of the race, but came back very strongly on the leader during the second half. He finished second, stuck to the car of Cecotto in front of him. Overall this has been a very positive weekend and we were finally able to translate our performance into results. A big thank you to our boys, who have done a great job by putting two fast and reliable cars on this new track. We will work hard to keep the momentum and get very strong results during the next events.”
Rafaele Marciello: “Overall this was a good weekend. I had a really, really good start. I was on used tyres and pushed hard at the beginning of the race, so I think I should have saved them a bit more, but I pushed for the win. When I was in third, I defended my position to Evans well as my tyres were pretty much gone during the closing laps. But overall finishing both races of the weekend on the podium is very good for me and the team.”
Stefano Coletti:: “I had a good start moving from 5th to 4th. I then passed Lello, but he was much quicker than me at the beginning of the race. My tyres took a longer time to get up to working temperature, but when they were ready, I started to push and passed Rossi on the outside of turn 3. I also passed Lello, who struggled with his tyres, so he let me go through. I then tried to catch Cecotto, but the gap was too big and I would have needed one or two laps more. But I am very happy with P2 and the fastest lap time in the race.” |
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