Monza qualifying/race report: A GREAT WAY TO FINISH

© GP2 Serie Media Service

Despite being Monaco born and bred, the Italian blood in Clivio runs richly and especially when at the home of Italian motor racing, Monza. The historic circuit hosted the final two races of the 2006 GP2 season and both Clivio and his team were hoping for a turn of good fortune after the miserable couple of weekends experienced recently.

Unlike most of the practice sessions this year, things didn’t go so well and Clivio was 19 th at the end of the session. The hard work put in by the engineers in front of the data computers and by the mechanics in preparation of the car seemed to pay off as Clivio was comfortable with the set up of his race car and confident that he could improve position.

Qualifying – p16

It was another intensely close qualifying session and only 1.4 seconds separated Clivio on the 8 th row of the grid from the pole position occupied by Nelson Piquet. “It just didn’t go quite right,” said Clivio. “There’s so little time to get it all working together – tyres up to temperature and a clear lap – and sometimes you are a little bit lucky and sometimes not. This was not so good but I had to remind myself of the start I made in Istanbul where I came from a long way back to near the front so I knew I could do well, even from here.”

Race 1 – Saturday, 9 th September

After making a great start, the Monaco man was up to 11 th in the opening laps before experiencing tyre problems early on in the race. “We’re not really sure what the problem was because I hadn’t flat-spotted them, maybe the pressures, but I knew the car wasn’t handling well because of the tyres and asked the team to change all four of them. Usually we only change two at a time but the mechanics did a really great change front and rear and I was back out again.”

Having stopped earlier than the remainder of the field, Clivio re-joined the race right near the back of the field. However, fortune smiled on DPR for once and the safety car came out after Adam Carroll lost a wheel, and these slower laps at less than full racing speed allowed Clivio to cool his brakes which would prove vital before the end of the race. Although not the hottest race of the year, Monza is the fastest track visited and therefore the hard braking can have a detrimental effect on the car’s brakes.

“After the pit stops had shaken up the order on the track I’d made up some places and then I just concentrated on staying out of trouble and avoiding the incidents and accidents which were happening around me. I was running in 8 th, which would have given me pole position for Sunday’s race, when Perera retired so in the end I finished 7 th and gained a front row start and some much needed points.”

Race 2 – Sunday, 10 th September

Attention was on the newly crowned Champion, Lewis Hamilton, and Nelson Piquet who were starting in 6 th an 7 th places respectively and both aiming to finish with a victory, but Clivio kept a cool head and did extremely well under intense pressure throughout the race.

“I didn’t have a great start whereas Hamilton and Pantano had a magic start and got past me. I then had to hold on to 3 rd and do my own race. I was able to keep at the same pace for most of the time even though I was struggling with a couple of gear changes and losing a bit of time each time I went down the straight.

“I could see Piquet coming through from the back and catching me up, and he tried to dive down the inside through Turn One a couple of times but couldn’t get past. The last time he tried I was lucky to have seen him in my mirrors losing it at the entry of the corner and I had to cut the chicane a bit otherwise he would have taken me off too.