Bahrain: Trident Racing preview

This weekend`s racing in Bahrain will start GP2 2007 championship

The countdown for the first round of the 2007 GP2 Season has finally started, as the series is scheduled to take off in Al Sakhir, Bahrein. Trident Racing is already up, operative, and fully staffed to start its title chase: the Italian team will return to the series for its second consecutive season, with two extremely talented rookies: Japanese Kohei Hirate and Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado. The racing weekend will kick off with the first practice on Friday (11:55-12:25),while a 30-minute qualifying session will follow in the afternoon (16:00 - 16:30). The first race (34 laps with one pit-stop) will be hosted on Saturday at 16:00; as a 23-lap Race2 will close the weekend on Sunday at 10:30. All times are local.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi - Team Principal
"The season it`s about to start must carry, for Trident Racing, the checksum of all the good job done last year in several fields: team organization, technical staff improvement, and commercial ability to attract new sponsors and investors. We`ll be starting with two young rookie drivers we rely on a lot; we enhanced our staff, and we`re widely satisfied of the great feeling seen during the winter testing. I have to personally thank Toyota, that gave us the opportunity to have a young talent like Kohei Hirate: we hope to repay their trust with on-track results. The main news here in Bahrain for Trident Racing is an official partnership with Hydra Properties, one of the largest real estate companies in Abu Dhabi, owned by the Emirate`s Royal Family. It`s an honour for us to present such an important sponsor: the agreement is surely a prove of the good commercial activity done during our first year of activity in the Emirates. From a racing point of view, the 2007 season presents a more competitive general level compared to last year`s, thanks to the many legitimate title contenders among teams and drivers. I want to say a big "good luck" to our 2006 driver, Andreas Zuber, a very talented guy we brought to his first GP2 win: he`ll be one of our most serious rivals".

-credit: tr