GP2 news
Meritus happy to be third after debut
26 January 2008The inaugural round of the newly born GP2 Asia series started well for Qi-Meritus.Mahara with another finish in the points courtesy of fourth from Hiroki Yoshimoto in today's second race. This was added to seven points obtained yesterday in a strong finish at fifth and sixth places in the first race for Luca Filippi and Hiroki Yoshimoto respectively at the Dubai Autodrome.
"I had a good start and was up to a strong second position right away," said Filippi. "During the safety car the gearbox went dead. There was nothing I could do to shift down. The gearbox was in neutral. Nothing I could do would reset it. It may possibly be a problem with a faulty set up of the safety systems; but the team has to check what happened. I am very disappointed to have had to stop on the fourth lap, because the car was set up perfectly; my pace was really good from the start."
Hiroki Yoshimoto commented, "I am proud to win points again for the second consecutive race with team Qi-Meritus.Mahara. I really had a good start. I was on the outside but Fairuz Fauzy (Super Nova Racing) pushed me a bit wide. This is a typical racing incident. Brakes and a sixth gear that was too long cost me the podium. I was not using all the power available. As for the brakes, since yesterday's race, they were a bit spongy and were feeling a bit like truck brakes, so I could not push as hard as I wanted to. The worst moment happened when a back marker came out of the pits and almost pushed me off. That provided and opportunity for Chandhok; but I could not re-pass him and regain because of my acceleration trouble. Then I had another emotion laden moment with Soucek's car and we were wheel to wheel until the DPR driver spun. It was a hard race; but I had a strong race. Overall, with the team we need to continue working on the speed and still need to do lot of development work."
Peter Thompson, president and team founder, Qi-Meritus.Mahara: "Of course, the team is unhappy that Luca could not finish this race since he was eventually set up for a win. Overall fourth place again and three points is a fantastic achievement for our new team, which now ranks third in the Championship behind two very established and strong teams. Congratulations to the team and to our champions who have set the pace. The team went beyond it stated goal to participate in their first ever week-end of the series. These ten points are a great result and we are looking forward to some more developments for the race in Sentul, Indonesia for the second round."
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