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RUSSIAN TIME GP2 Series, Round 6, Hockenheim Race 2, July 20, 2014

07/20/2014

Circuit conditions and the timing of Safety Car deployments conspired against RT Russian Time in Sunday’s reverse grid GP2 race at Hockenheim, resulting in 11th position for Saturday’s feature race winner Mitch Evans, but a promising 12th for rookie Russian team mate Artem Markelov, who started from the pit lane.

With heavy rainfall immediately before the start, the majority started on wet tyres but among those opting for slicks were eventual race winner Stefano Coletti and second place finisher Felipe Nasr. They were helped by an early race Safety Car when conditions were at their most treacherous.

Evans made a superb start and was second into Turn 1 from eighth on the grid! On the first Safety Car restart he went inside Nathanael Berthon to lead briefly before running wide at Turn 1. Evans struggled as the track dried and he sought out the damp patched to keep his wet tyres alive, before stopping for slicks on lap 11 of the 36-lap race. A second, confused Safety Car period further hampered the Kiwi’s race.

Markelov made strong progress after being penalised for a collision with Jon Lancaster in the feature race. From the pit lane he finished right behind his team mate and with a fastest race lap beaten by only six drivers and just 0.006s slower than that of series leader Jolyon Palmer.

In the final analysis, what had looked like an optimistic tyre choice came right for Racing Engineering/Coletti and Carlin/Nasr, with Art Grand Prix’s Stoffel Vandoorne completing the podium finishers after starting on treaded rubber.

Mitch Evans: “That was disappointing. I made a great start and managed to get into the lead but when the track dried I struggled on the wets and it felt just like I was driving on ice. We could maybe have gone onto slicks earlier, but only by a lap, so that wouldn’t have made the difference. It was my first non-score since Barcelona so we will regroup and aim for the podium again at Hungaroring next week.”

Artem Markelov: “I got a three-place grid penalty for the incident in yesterday’s race but because I didn’t finish I couldn’t serve it, so I had to start from the pit lane. I gave everything and that was a much more satisfying race. I’m pleased with the extra pace I found at a track on which I finished on the podium in F3.”

Paul Jackson, Team Manager: “Motor racing is like that sometimes... Looking at the track before the start we felt that slicks were just too much of a gamble but we’d left the set-up pretty much dry because we knew we’d be going onto slicks at some stage. On reflection and without knowing what the others did, that might have hurt Mitch a bit on the wets. The second Safety Car was a bit of a shambles and the timing screens went down on the pit wall, so we were blind when it came to judging pace. From Mitch’s perspective we will go away from Hockenheim preferring to remember Saturday, but Artem did a really good job today.”

Svetlana Strelnikova, Team Principal: ”Things did not go our way today but we can say we briefly led both races and for the second successive event we leave with victory in the feature race. We will be aiming for a hat-trick in Budapest! ” 




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