FIA F2

Monaco: Racing Engineering qualifying report

After a very good free practice where both Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers, Lucas Di Grassi and Dani Clos, finished in second and ninth place respectively, the qualifying for Friday's feature race in Monaco ended with certain disappointment ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:56 PM

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After a very good free practice where both Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers, Lucas Di Grassi and Dani Clos, finished in second and ninth place respectively, the qualifying for Friday's feature race in Monaco ended with certain disappointment for the Spanish team as the results did not reflect the true pace and potential showed in the morning.

Free practice went well for Fat Burner Racing Engineering's duo Dani Clos and Lucas Di Grassi. The Spanish driver, who participates for the first time in a racing event in the Principality of Monaco, showed a very solid performance and finished free practice as the best rookie in a fantastic 9th position. Lucas, on the other hand, set the second fastest time in free practice, which looked very promising for the qualifying session.

When the lights turned to green at 4:15 pm, Lucas and Dani started their first flying laps for Monaco's GP2 qualifying. The Brazilian was soon showing great pace which placed him in second, whilst Dani behind the wheel of the second Fat Burner Racing Engineering car, moved up to seventh. When half way through the session drivers started to enter the pits to pick up a new set of tyres. Lucas, in second, improved his lap time once more, setting a time of 1:20.689, 1.125 seconds behind pole sitter Grosjean.

Dani entered the pits whilst in tenth position and with the cars prepared for the second part of the session both Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers rejoined the session with about 10 minutes to go, dropping back on the time sheet while in the pits. Lucas faced a typical Monaco problem and encountered too much traffic on the track which did not allow him to regain his previous position and although he improved his lap time with 1:20.308, he will start tomorrow's race from fifth place. His team mate was able to move up to tenth when he set a lap time of 1:20.750, but dropped back to 13th by the end of the session, when he could not complete a clear lap anymore either.

Lucas Di Grassi: The car is working fine and the team is doing a good job. I was in P2 during most of the qualifying, but then there was just too much traffic to improve my lap time and I went from P2 to P5. Things are looking pretty good for tomorrow and we we should be at least be able to make it to the podium. We will fight for the best possible results to leave from Monaco with good points.

Dani Clos: At the beginning everything went pretty good and I was very confident with the car. The problem was just about getting a clear lap and this was really difficult. However, when we mounted the second set of tyres, we also changed a few minor things on the car, but the results were not as expected. After our performance in free practice I am obviously not happy with the qualifying results. But we have to see how things go tomorrow. Everything can happen.

Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon, team's Principal: Well, we had a pretty decent car, but it would have been practically impossible to get the pole because of the intense traffic. Here in Monaco you could be on your best lap and it could be suddenly ruined by a slower car. But all in all we are quite happy with both, our drivers and the car. All the boys did a good job and now we are going to get ready for the tomorrow's race.

-credit: re

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