Loading...The second weekend of the 2015 GP2 Series has been a little bittersweet for the Racing Engineering team because of the good results of Alexander Rossi in contrast to the complicated races that Jordan King has suffered. However, after this weekend, the Andalusian team continues second in the team ranking while Rossi remains third in the driver standings.
The free practice session began with warm temperatures, but when it was time for the qualifying session, the air and track temperatures had risen up to 30ºC and 50ºC respectively. So, the cars were forced to run with the Pirelli P Zero ‘yellow’ soft compound tyres. Finally, Jordan finished fifteenth – despite of having reached the seventh position during the session – and Rossi was fifth.
The next day the team took the decision that Alexander ran with the Pirelli P Zero ‘orange’ hard compound, while the other front runners (including Jordan) chose the soft compound. That was a very clever decision that undoubtedly helped the American to aim to the podium in third place after a race in which he managed to keep good times compared to his rivals. In fact, Rossi could not advance more positions because the DRS system for all the cars was not in operation at the moment that he needed it. With seven laps to go, Vandoorne was the leader pressing so close by Rossi. Unfortunately, on the last lap Evans used his DRS to pass Alexander. Meanwhile, Jordan maintained the eleventh position after moving up the classification, but he finished the race in fourteenth position due to his tyres were starting to wear away.
On Sunday, Alexander occupied the sixth place in the reverse grid, while Jordan remained in the seventh row. The first start was aborted as Pic did not take his correct grid place, and later an accident on the opening lap saw the Virtual Safety Car employed as the damaged car of Binder was removed. As racing resumed, Marciello spun and Rossi got the 5th place, allowing him to fight for leadership. Finally, after a battle for the third place with Gasly and Haryanto, Alexander got the fourth place and score more points. It was not the same for Jordan, who after a hard weekend he finished 11th after suffering a little contact without damages with Canamasas.
Racing Engineering will have a break of two weeks until the Monaco race to continue finding the ideal pace for each of its pilots.
Photo: GP2©
