GP2 SERIES 2012

21/04/2012
BAHRAIN, RACE 1

The Rapax Team rounded out the first day of racing at Al Sakhir, Bahrain, in the second round of the GP2 Series, by cruising to 6th place with Tom Dillmann and 17th with Ricardo Teixeira.

Dillmann completed a great recovery race that rewarded the team and drivers after yesterday’s tough fortunes. The Frenchman, who was at his first race at Al Sakhir, was stopped by clutch issues in practice and was forced to start with no reference points whatsoever. In the end, he settled for a row 7 spot, and that’s where he started an awesome comeback.

The pit strategy and the team’s speed in doing the change has propelled Dillmann to a position closer to the top end of the charts, rounding out the whole team’s effort. Ticardo Teixeira ran a good race too but as the Angolan-based racer had used two set of tires in qualifying, he was forced to keep it up with older rubber today in a great management effort.

Following to the results scored in Race 1, Dillmann will be taking-off from 3rd place on tomorrow’s Race 2 grid, while Teixeira will take-off from the 8th row. The race will be starting at 10:35 local time (9:35 CET).

Tom Dillmann
“My start has been good but I didn’t want to take too many risks in the first part of the race. Lap after lap the car’s performance got better and better, and after a good pit-stop I found myself in 8th place. The race was then neutralized for three laps with the sadety car and I immediately found a good pace I was faster than the guys I had in front but passing wasn’t easy I think that third place is a good result, especially if we consider the bad luck had yesterday and my 14th position at the start. I hope to round the weekend out with some good results in tomorrow’s race 2”.

Ricardo Teixeira
“My race has been conditioned by yesterday’s qualification when I asked a lot from my tires. Despite this handicap, today’s car performance has been really good. The major obstacle in order to recover was the behaviour of some of my opponents as they were at the limit of fair play, with more than one line change on the staights each time I tried to go for a move. I’m pretty satisfied especially for the future. I have to improve my performance in qualifying and from that with my good race pace I think I can battle for points.”