GP2 SERIES-GP ITALIA-CLASSIFICATION

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sept 11th, 2009

GP2 SERIES-GP ITALIA-CLASSIFICATION

Roldan will start from the seventh position

Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet GP) will be on the third line at the start of the first race of the GP2 series Italy that will be held in Saturday from 4 pm. The Spanish driver made the seventh best time in the trials, although he will place one place higher due to the sanction given to Di Grassi on the last race that made him go back for 10 position. In the free trials, held in the morning, he was the fastest.

Vitaly Petrov (Barwa Addax Team) made the best time on the timed trainings session held on the Italian circuit of Monza (1´30´´007). The Russian driver soon made the time that enabled him to start from the pole position. In second position was Giedo Van der Garde (Isport), third was the general leader, Nico Hulkenberg (ART) followed by Sergio Pérez (Arden).

In the free training session held in the morning, Roldan got the best time (1´30´´607) after 14 laps. Second came Lucas Di Grassi (Racing Engineering) followed by the Spaniard Javi Villa (Super Nova Racing). Roldan placed the highest during most of the time. He made his best time only when 6 minutes had passed and no other driver could beat it.

Interview with Roldan Rodriguez

How is Monza?

The track is ok, it has many tricks but it depends on whether the car responds positively or not: last year it went aright and I hope this year will be the same. The best thing about Monza is that it doesn’t matter whether you start on 3rd of 4th position as it is a long race and there is enough room for passing other drivers.

You got up to 4 easy pass points

How was today?

I’m happy, maybe I could have placed higher on the timed training laps as I did first on the free ones. Petrov did a great lap. We had to do some changes with the wheels, for security reasons…and we payed the price after. The rhythm of the race it’s going to be good and coming out 6th I hope to get some points on Saturday and Sunday, trying to finish as close to the first position as I can possible be.

What’s the most difficult thing about Monza? How do you drive without hardly any aerodynamic load?

We have removed half of the back spoiler. The most difficult thing is stopping. You hit the brakes as late as you would do it with the spoiler but in the case we don’t have it. The car moves a lot, it gets blocked from back to front and it seems as if it’s never going to stop, but at the end of the day what you nees is to be skilled with the brake, that’s the hardest.

How are the buffetings?

Buffeting is felt to a great extent, from the time you are 40 metres away from the driver in front of you, it’s a very fast car. If normally we go up to 315 – 316 with the buffeting you can go up to whatever you want. That’s the good thing about passing another driver, that you get the buffeting at half the straight line a when you get to the point in which you need to hit the brakes, you have already passed him.

It’s the parabolic curve is the hardest one?

Actually they all are. It looks like a first gear chicane, with nothing in it, but the braked is truly important, they have changed the «pianos» and they are really hard, going out from the curve with no spoiler the car slips, the «pianos» are slippery… Nothing is easy there. There are also difficult the Parabolic and the Ascari, were Raikkonen crashed last year and that’s because you get blocked from behind, reching at more than 300 and when you hit the brake is as if you were pulling the hand brake. To me that braked and that curve are the most difficult ones.

Free practice rankings:

  1. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP 1:30.607 14 laps
  2. Lucas di Grassi Fat Burner Racing Eng. 1:30.733 14
  3. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing 1:30.972 14
  4. Nico Hülkenberg ART Grand Prix 1:31.002 14
  5. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Addax team 1:31.171 15
  6. Diego Nunes iSport International 1:31.329 16
  7. Giedo van der Garde iSport International 1:31.417 15
  8. Pastor Maldonado ART Grand Prix 1:31.457 12
  9. Edoardo Mortara Telmex Arden International 1:31.490 17
  10. Luca Filippi Super Nova Racing 1:31.589 16
  11. Alberto Valerio Piquet GP 1:31.624 15

Qualification listing:

  1. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Addax Team 1:30.007
  2. Giedo van der Garde iSport International 1:30.398
  3. Nico Hülkenberg ART Grand Prix 1:30.436
  4. Sergio Perez Telmex Arden international 1:30.460
  5. Lucas di Grassi Fat Burner Racing Eng. 1:30.504
  6. Pastor Maldonado ART Grand Prix 1:30.596
  7. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP 1:30.634
  8. Diego Nunes iSport International 1:30.729
  9. Davide Valsecchi Barwa Addax Team 1:30.768
  10. Andreas Zuber Party Poker Racing.com SC 1:30.803