Asia: Abu Dhabi: Meritus Racing qualifying report
MalaysiaQI-Meritus.com opens GP2 Asia season with positive qualifying results Friday, October 30, 2009 - Italian Luca Filippi and Brazil Diego Nunes had a good start to their first day at Yas Marina circuit and finished first practice with best ...
MalaysiaQI-Meritus.com opens GP2 Asia season with positive qualifying results
Friday, October 30, 2009 - Italian Luca Filippi and Brazil Diego Nunes had a good start to their first day at Yas Marina circuit and finished first practice with best times of 1.55.269 (4th) and 1.55.573 (10th), having completed 11 and 12 laps respectively.
In the qualifying session the two drivers finished in fourth (Luca Filippi) and 17th (Diego Nunes). Filippi stopped a few minutes before the end of the session suffering from a gearbox problem. It was a pity because Filippi had set the fastest times in testing last weekend at Yas Marina and looked to have a good chance of taking pole. But his chance ended as a gearbox problem caused the car to stop at turn 19. Meanwhile Diego Nunes got stuck in traffic. Between that and yellow flags caused by other drivers spinning, he could not get a clean fast lap in.
Luca Filippi commented: "We familiarised ourselves with this track during the tests last week where we were strong. I was very motivated when I arrived for qualifying. We used the track time this morning for some more fine tuning. After the first 30-minute run this morning I must say that I quite like this circuit, but what really counts is qualifying. I liked this session even if it is a bit disappointing not to have been able to do a better qualifying lap because of the gearbox problem that ruined my hopes of taking pole. But fourth place is not bad. I feel lucky to have had one clear lap to set my time. It takes guts here, but I did it. The team still has time to fine tune the car for the first race tomorrow."
Diego Nunes: "I was pleased in the morning with a good session even though I don't yet really know the limits of the car so it was hard to push at the right moment. The first session was a real experience on such a huge scale track which offers a mixture of very different corners. The qualifying result is disappointing of course, but I am hopeful for the race given our good set up and pace.
-credit: meritus
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