FIA F2
Spa: Javier Villa qualifying report
The usual Spa Francorchamps changing weather made things difficult for Javier Villa, who finally run out of time to score a better lap time on the wet Belgian track, eventually having to settle for a position on the 11th row of the grid for ...
Published: Sep 7, 2008, 9:24 AM
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The usual Spa Francorchamps changing weather made things difficult for Javier Villa, who finally run out of time to score a better lap time on the wet Belgian track, eventually having to settle for a position on the 11th row of the grid for tomorrow's Feature Race.
The day started with the Free Practice session held on dry track and there the Spaniard and his team went through the scheduled program, focussing on looking for the best possible setup for qualifying and the two races of the weekend. However all that work ended up being almost useless, at least as regards Qualifying, as just a few minutes before the session began it started to rain. This meant having to return to square one on the car setup while Javier was trying to get used to the track conditions and was looking for the best possible lap time to get a good spot on the grid.
Villa was unable to find a good pace on the slippery tarmac of Spa and, despite improving as the session went on, as soon as his was getting more confidence in his driving in the difficult conditions of the track, he was finally unable to complete the few more laps he needed to score the better lap time he was looking for. The Qualifying session finished without Javi being able to better 21st in the time list, so he will be on the inside of 11th row for tomorrow's starting grid. This position means he will have a mountain to climb this weekend, although the forecast is for a dry race so Javi, who last year had a good race here in such conditions, is confident in doing yet another of his trademark recovery races similar the one he made in Valencia, starting from the same place of the grid and finishing by scoring points. Moreover this at a track where overtaking is far more difficult than it is at Spa and in the much shorter Sprint Race, bearing this in mind Javi is still positive about his chances tomorrow even if today he was not happy with his pace.
Javier Villa's own words:
"Just five minutes before the beginning of Qualifying it started to rain and this meant things were a bit hectic. In Free Practice we were running quite well but in the wet, although I was getting more and more confident, I lacked a bit on pace. I'd have needed maybe four more laps but I didn't have time to do them so that was all. Tomorrow I am starting 21st but the forecast is for a dry race and here, last year, I had a good race and it's a track were overtaking is possible so I think I will still recover and get in the points."
-credit: javiervilla.com
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