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Spa Quali

08/25/2017

Spa Quali

The unpredictable weather conditions that seem to be an inevitable part of a Spa race weekend struck again today, with rain affecting the qualifying session for round 8 of the F2 championship.

In dry conditions earlier in the day, Artem Markelov was fourth quickest in practice, just half a second from the ultimate pace, set by championship leader Charles Leclerc. Rain made conditions more of a lottery in qualifying, however, and it was team mate Luca Ghiotto (2m22.952s) who set seventh fastest time, with Artem (2m23.180s) ninth. Leclerc (2m20.842s) it was who took pole, ahead of DAMS drivers Nicholas Latifi and Oliver Rowland.

Luca Ghiotto: «It’s good to get back to action after the summer break, during which the highlight was my Williams F1 test at Budapest. Today was a typical Spa day with conditions at the end of the session not good enough to improve lap times. But Spa is a great circuit to drive on and we hope to challenge for strong points by optimising our set-up and race strategy.»

Artem Markelov: «I have good memories of Spa with my first GP2 feature race podium here two years ago. That was a memorable race and I’m looking for a similar performance tomorrow even though I will be starting further back than I would have liked. It’s great to race on such a sweeping circuit with challenges such as Eau Rouge, Pouhon and Blanchimont and high average speeds – it’s a very different kind of track to our last race in Budapest!»

Svetlana Strelnikova (Team principal): «We had strong pace in the dry practice sessions but things did not quite go our way in qualifying. But, we still have both drivers solidly in the top 10 and both Artem and Luca have shown their competitive racing ability this year, so points and even podiums are not beyond our reach this weekend.”




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