FIA F2

Asia: Abu Dhabi: Bridgestone weekend summary

Davide Valsecchi (iSport) and Christian Vietoris (DAMS) took the first race wins of the 2009-2010 GP2 Asia Series at the fabulous new Abu Dhabi Grand Prix venue of Yas Marina. For the first time the Asia Series used Bridgestone's medium compound ...

Published: Nov 2, 2009, 5:06 AM

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Davide Valsecchi (iSport) and Christian Vietoris (DAMS) took the first race wins of the 2009-2010 GP2 Asia Series at the fabulous new Abu Dhabi Grand Prix venue of Yas Marina.

For the first time the Asia Series used Bridgestone's medium compound slick GP2 tyre produced in Bridgestone's Technical Centre Europe in Rome, Italy. This tyre saw very hot conditions at the challenging new race venue, but the tyre performed exceptionally well, giving fast and consistent lap times and good grip levels on the new track surface.

Saturday's Feature Race saw Valsecchi start from pole and demonstrate impressive pace throughout the race. He set the fastest lap on his penultimate lap, demonstrating the strong durability of the tyres. Most of the field changed their rear tyres when they came in for their compulsory tyre stop. Luca Filippi (MalaysiaQi-Meritus.Com) finished second and James Jakes (Super Nova) took third.

Sunday's Sprint Race saw Oliver Turvey (iSport) start from pole on the reverse top eight grid but Vietoris come through from a third placed start to take the win. Valsecchi fought through from his eighth place start to finish second, setting the race's fastest lap on his penultimate lap. Josef Kral (Super Nova) finished third.

Valsecchi now leads the drivers' championship with 19 points, ahead of Vietoris on 9. The teams' championship is led by iSport on 23 from Super Nova on 14. The GP2 Asia Series returns to Abu Dhabi for its second round, next year on February 5-7.

Quote from Franco Annunziato - Senior Vice President Technology, Bridgestone Europe

"Bridgestone are proud to supply the GP2 Asia Series with tyres produced in our Technical Centre Europe. We wanted strong and consistent performance and despite the very high temperatures at this fabulous new race circuit, we are happy to say that this is what we saw. Supplying tyres to the Asian Series from Rome is a new challenge for us, and we are happy to see how they have performed so well this weekend."

Quote from Kentaro Yamamoto - Bridgestone Motorsport GP2 Series Engineer

"This is an exciting new track and we saw very good racing. Our medium compound was able to give good grip on the new surface and deliver very good performance, with the fastest laps in both races set late in the races. We did expect more degradation with the high temperatures and the new surface here so we are very confident for the next round here. Valsecchi was very quick this weekend and also showed very good tyre management so congratulations to him. "

-credit: bridgestone

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