NEWS
Bad Weather Makes for a Tough Race
2010-05-02
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P1 Motorsport endured a tough feature race at Spa-Francorchamps, after heavy rain fell over the Belgian circuit, to score some more points for their 2010 championship campaign. Jan Charouz took a credible ninth position with team mate Walter Grubmüller Jr. finishing in 18th position, despite a strong showing throughout the race.
P1 drivers Charouz and Grubmüller Jr. had qualified 10th and 13th respectively earlier that morning. Just minutes before the start of the race, a torrential downpour flooded the circuit, catching out a number of teams and drivers. Charouz was one of them, and unable to change his tyres in time, was later handed a drive-through penalty. Charouz ran just outside the top ten for much of the race, after serving his penalty.
Finally finishing in ninth position, Charouz said: “Once again, we did not have luck in the qualifying. I was constantly behind other cars and I couldn’t see anything with the spray coming out from cars in the front. When we were waiting on the grid the rain got heavier and everybody changed tyres. Unfortunately, we did not manage to do that before the five-minute board and like nine other cars we were given a drive-through penalty as a result. The race itself was very demanding because there was zero visibility. Moreover, our car did not work well in the wet as we had a dry setup and it was extremely difficult to get heat into the tyres. At least I’m pleased that I did not make a single mistake in such a difficult race, and scored points in both of the weekend’s races.”
Meanwhile team mate Grubmuller Jr. had put in a strong performance in these extreme weather conditions, and was running in an impressive ninth position. The Austrian driver looked good for yet another points finish, when on the penultimate lap, he ran wide and into the gravel trap, losing track position and costing him a top ten finish. Fortunately, Grubmüller was able to continue, but was eventually classified no higher than 18th position.
Speaking about the race, Grubmüller Jr. said: “The conditions during the start had been treacherous but it was getting better as the race progressed. I was running ninth and was more and more confident. However, the car understeered heavily on the entry to the Rivage corner and I went to the gravel. The marshals helped me back to the track, so I managed to finish the race at least, although only in 18th position. It’s a shame that I didn’t score any points, however it was still a pretty good weekend thanks to the seventh place yesterday.”
The P1 team will next take to the track for the fifth round of the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship – on the streets of Monaco on 14 May.
