Imola race report

© Hoch Zwei

Race 1 – Saturday, 22 nd April

It all promised so much for yesterday’s first race but ultimately, and very frustratingly, delivered nothing. Today’s second race was his first finish of the season which as Clivio says “is a good first step”.

“I was looking forward to capitalising on my 5 th row starting position but my engine lost power before the first corner and then turned itself off. I was left stranded on the side of the track, with not even one lap completed. A desperately frustrating end to what could have been a great weekend.

Race 2 – Sunday, 23 rd April

“That was difficult, for sure, especially as we then had no data to work with for the second race. It meant we were going into it “blind” as far as set up was concerned and we didn’t really know what to expect. We made a few changes and the car was good, and we know now what we have to do to move on yet further for Nurburgring so I think we can say we are ready for the next race.

“I was almost at the back of the grid for race 2 so knew it would be a challenge from the start. It was an interesting race but really hard to get through, especially from Fauzy. I destroyed my rear tyres trying to catch him up, so decided to back off a bit and have a few clean laps to see how the car was doing. I set the 4 th fastest lap of the race at that time which was very encouraging – especially as the tyres were gone.

“I battled Fauzy for quite a time, but was losing out on traction so had a couple of moments going through the chicane. The biggest one was when I went down Fauzy’s inside but he moved over on me so I had to go on the grass or make contact. We needed to finish to see if everything was working through to the end so there was no question that I had to avoid contact.

Imola preview/qualifying

© Hoch Zwei

This weekend the GP2 Series returns to the scene of its first ever weekend of competition as the teams and drivers prepare for round two at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy. After the stand-alone event in Valencia, GP2 is once again back in front of the Formula One teams and fans and the pressure to perform, and the competition, remain intense.

So far this weekend things are going well for Clivio and his DPR Direxiv team.

“When we arrived yesterday I went around on a scooter and then jogged around it to familiarise myself with the track again. It’s only my 2 nd time here and last year was a bit of a disaster weekend at Imola for me and I didn’t get many laps. Although I come from Monaco, 50% of me is Italian so coming here is a bit like a home race for me, and I’m sure my Italian relations will be watching closely on TV. It’s a good place to do well.

“We only get 30 minutes of practice before qualifying but that was good for us. Andy Miller (my engineer) and I chose a completely different set up for our car than that on my team mate Olivier’s, and it proved a good choice. I was really happy with our set up and the car was quick and consistent. I was 6 th quickest and only three tenths of a second away from 2 nd – it’s very close, as always.

“Qualifying this afternoon was also good, but of course could have been better. I qualified in 10 th place and just a couple more tenths would have placed me 6 th. The biggest unknown before we went out was that we didn’t know what to expect from the track now that the F1 rubber was down. They had two practice sessions before our qualifying and that made a big difference to the grip levels on the track. We had to guess a little bit on the set up, but maybe it wasn’t quite enough. The track had changed quite a bit and lap times were about 1 second quicker in qualifying than in practice. It’s a big improvement from Valencia, and the car has been changed a lot in the way it handles and traction wise; we’ve gained more traction so it seems to be ok.

“Imola is much kinder to the car on tyres than Valencia plus we’ve made the step forward on set up so that’s two key points to get us on our way this weekend. It’s the kind of track I like more than Valencia too, not as twisty and not so many low gear corners. We’re quicker, so I like it! There have been some re-surfacing changes at a couple of parts of the track and at the top chicane so it’s slower and a lot smoother. Last year you had to use the kerbs as much as possible to get through the chicane, but now you can be smoother which is nice. There isn’t one special corner or part of the track which stands out for me, it’s good all the way round but is a bit too bumpy in places where the tarmac is getting quite old. You can get a bit of a headache when you go round!