GP2 news
Grosjean takes another eight points for ART
17 February 2008Wet conditions and chaos saw ART Grand Prix walk away from the Indonesian round of the GP2 Asia series with two fourth placed finishes, both courtesy of Romain Grosjean. After winning both rounds last time out in Bahrain, the Frenchman added another 8 very valuable points to both his and the team's overall tally.
"There were several differences at Sentul compared to Bahrain," said Grosjean. "Only 30 minutes of free practice and then, and most importantly, the rain, which disturbed the weekend a lot I spun on my first flyer with slick tyres because the track was a bit wet at the beginning of the session. It was a true disappointment because I think that I could have been much higher on the starting grid. The beginning of the first race went rather well as I managed to keep my fourth place, but we lost time during the pit stop. The team was not ready for such an early stop when the first safety car came in. The left rear tyre was still in the box when I came in, my mechanics thought that it was necessary to change all 4 and not just 2 tyres, and the nut on the left back was stuck. I went out again with the bit between my teeth, and I gained several places. However, my engine started to overheat when I attacked Hanley. The problem became so bad that the engine went into safety mode and I had no more than 70% power. Therefore the objective was to rejoin and try and score some points."
"The second race was very chaotic with very precarious conditions," Grosjean added. "After having had an impeccable start to the race thanks to a perfect car, I fought for 3rd place with Pavlovic, but because of the drying track we very quickly destroyed our back tyres. The end of the race was chaotic. Hanley tapped Pavlovic and he turned into me. In the end a driver one lap down spun across the track in the final turn. Senna had to slow down and there were four of us capable of finishing second but I could not do anymore as I had no traction. We knew that we could not expect to win every race like we did in Dubai, and this weekend is a very enriching experience. We limited the damage and have another 10 points, but there is still more progress to be made, by me and the team."
Team chief Frederic Vasseur commented, "If the aim was to learn all the difficult possible conditions of GP2, the weekend was a success! It's been a nightmare for the drivers between the weather and the track conditions. Therefore it is quite hard to judge the performance of the drivers but it was important that they could show us that they can handle the situation and finish the races in such horrible conditions. Romain did particularly well and scored some valuable points for both championships."
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