GP2 news
Pitstop pain for Conway in Monaco
26 May 2007 / Results / PhotosPlenty of people have come to Monte Carlo seeking their fortune only to lose their shirt, and British racing star Mike Conway knew how that felt today. Despite a promising qualifying performance, and a good chance of scoring points, an unfortunate accident put him out of the race following his pitstop.
Thursday's first free practice session was Mike's first taste of Monaco, and he found the grand prix track a difficult challenge initially in his Super Nova-run GP2 car.
"Monaco is quite a lot different from how I pictured it," said Mike. "I've been successful before on street circuits in Formula 3, but a GP2 car is much faster. It's a good track, a real challenge. The tunnel, for example, looks easily flat-out on TV, but the first time through it in one of these cars was a real eye-opener! It's flat-out now for me though, of course."
With another 30-minute free practice and then qualifying an hour later, Friday was a day of avoiding mistakes, as well as gaining speed to climb up the grid. Mike made excellent progress, building up to a lap that was good enough for 10th on the grid. He thought he could have done even better, but circumstances worked against him.
"I'm happy with that," said Mike. "We found five seconds overnight from the first free practice session by sitting down and thinking things through. In qualifying, we got quicker and quicker as the session progressed. It was a shame my team-mate Luca [Filippi] blew his engine, because I set the same after the oil from his engine went down as I had before, so actually I think we would have been quicker still.
"I can feel in the car where we are losing time, so I'm happy that we'll address that for the race. It's a tough race for everyone, but I feel that points are attainable from there."
Mike also suffered a fright when Lucas di Grassi, driving for the reigning champion ART Grand Prix team, hit him at the Grand Hotel hairpin in qualifying. Mike explained: "I had just come out of the pits on new tyres, and he was on a flying lap. I had to brake early for the hairpin, as I wouldn't have got around on cold tyres otherwise, and he dived up the inside. I turned out of the corner, to avoid the collision, but he hit me anyway. There's not really room for two cars through there."
Saturday's race started well initially, with Mike making an excellent getaway. Unfortunately, Andreas Zuber's iSport car had broken down, forcing cars in front of Mike to jink into his path. Adrian Zaugg and Antonio Pizzonia got past him, and then proceeded to hold him up.
"The pace was good, but I was stuck behind people," said Mike. "We decided to pit early, to try and find some clear air to make inroads into those ahead."
Sadly, after his pitstop, Mike spun as he rejoined the racetrack, and his race ended there. "It was just cold tyres," he admitted. "You have to release the [pit speed limiter] button as you turn, and it didn't help that it was the first pitstop I've completed in a race this year. It's a shame, and I'm sorry for the team that it happened. But now we've got to focus on the rest of the year, starting with the Paul Ricard test next month, and go from there."
The next GP2 round takes place at the French Grand Prix weekend at Magny-Cours on the weekend of June 29/July 1.
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