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21/06/15 Points today for Jordan King and Alexander Rossi in the Red Bull Ring Sprint Race. |
| Once again it was cool and cloudy with air and track temperatures of 13° and 32° respectively and there was a possibility of rain for today’s 28 lap Sprint Race. Following yesterday’s Feature Race Alexander Rossi was starting from 3rd on the grid and Jordan King from 12th. All the cars were running on the Pirelli P Zero White medium compound tyres. Alexander made a fast start but pole man Yelloly was slow away and as they entered the first corner the two cars made contact as the American moved to the outside of the Hilmer car and Alexander had nowhere to go and he ran wide dropping back to 13th place. The Racing Engineering car soon passed Marciello and Binder to lie 11th on lap three and three laps later he was looking for a way past Visou and on lap seven he used DRS to overtake the Rapax car for 10th. His next target was Pic who was one second ahead and within two laps he was right on the gearbox of the Campos Racing car and on lap 12 he was ahead and in 9th place. However a post-race disqualification to Markelov saw Alexander promoted to 8th, the final points scoring position. Alexander’s next target was his teammate Jordan who was 3.7 seconds ahead as the cars approached the halfway point of the race. He was now one of the fastest cars on the track and with eight laps remaining the young American was now involved in a tense battle with Markelov and Jordan with only 1.4 seconds between the three cars but he was unable to make up any further places and he finished in 9th, just outside the points. Jordan made a clean start although he lost a place on the opening lap but he quickly began to make up positions and on lap two he was up to 8th and he was setting some very fast times taking the fastest lap of the race so far on lap seven with a time of 1:16.411s. The Racing Engineering car was now closing on Gasly but the two cars were very evenly matched, however Jordan continued to push and he gradually closed the gap and on lap 15 there was just 0.7 seconds between the two cars. As the race entered the closing laps Jordan was still close to Gasly but he had a delayed Markelov and Alexander right behind him and he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. The young Briton continued to put pressure on Gasly but as the final laps ran out he had to settle for 7th at the flag 0.3 seconds behind the DAMS car. This was a race of what might have been for the Racing Engineering drivers, Alexander’s first lap incident prevented him from taking a potential race win and although Jordan was fast through the race starting from 12th on the grid was too much of a handicap. The teams will now travel to Silverstone in two weeks’ time for round five of the 2015 GP2 Series. |
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| Team Comments: Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón, President of Racing Engineering: “What a pity about the first corner incident for Alexander as I think we would have otherwise seen him on the podium again for sure. He dropped back to 13th and a strong pace allowed him to get back into 8th and at least take one point. Jordan, on the other hand, had a strong race once more, fighting his way up to 7th and also setting the fastest lap time of the race, allowing him to score two additional points. Overall it was not the weekend we were hoping for, but we will work hard to be back on the podium in Silverstone.” Jordan King: “The first lap was very good from 12th to 9th. Then I had a bit of a gap to close on Gasly and doing so I set the fastest lap, which is a nice bonus. There was a bit of a fight with Markelov, which changed the race a bit as passing him sooner would have meant I was closer to Gasly during the closing laps. I eventually got closer to him, pushing for P6 and had only one lap to get past, which I actually did, but he regained his position. Overall this was very positive, even though there is still a lot for me to work on, especially the starts. But speed, overtaking and race pace are positives to take from this weekend and I am looking forward to going to my home race and putting everything together towards getting a podium position.” Alexander Rossi:: “I had a good start off the line, but unfortunately you can’t always control others around you and I got hit in my rear right tyre which caused me to almost spin in turn 1. I recovered in 13th, but by then the race was already compromised. The car was good and Sit’s a shame because we should have been able to get a lot of points.” |
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