Alexander Ross Barcelona test summary

Alexander Rossi P2 in Final 2011 GP2 Test with Caterham Team AirAsia

Alexander Rossi

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

Caterham Team AirAsia concluded a positive 2011 GP2 test program with American driver Alexander Rossi, who finished P2 in Barcelona yesterday.

The team worked closely with both Alexander and Rodolfo Gonzalez on set up this morning whilst the track dried following overnight rain. Alexander provided the team with lots of good feedback, happy with his car he finished the early session eighth after traffic held up his new tyre runs. A determined final session this afternoon proved what the American is capable of. With some long race simulation runs he made an impressive lap early on to sit P1 for the majority of the session. His lap time was only squeezed off the top spot in the latter stages of the day by Stefano Coletti to mark the end of post-season testing with a strong P2 position.

The team now have a quick turnaround before the freight leaves next week in time for the Final 2011 GP2 race supporting the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix 11th - 13th November 2011.

Phill Spencer (Team Manager): “We spent a lot of this morning working on set ups whilst the track dried after rainfall last night. Alexander solidified his relationship with the team today, he has been happy with the car it was just unfortunate that two out of his three runs on new tyres this morning were held up by traffic otherwise he'd have been P2, but he has done a brilliant job finishing the day with a very strong run to finish P2 cementing everything ahead of Abu Dhabi and we are all very pleased with how things have gone here.”

Alexander Rossi (Best Lap: 1:29.808 / Total laps: 73): “I am so thankful to Tony, Riad, Din and all of Team Lotus for their confidence in me. The test was very good, the team is the utmost professional and I feel very priviledged with my association with Caterham and Team Lotus. We missed out a bit this morning with early temperatures, but that's the way things go sometimes. We decided to take a bit of a risk this afternoon and went for it as soon as the session went green because we knew temperatures would rise during the afternoon, but it worked out for us so it was a good call. We did some new tyre runs and a race simulation which I was very happy with. I think that was the highlight of the day. All in all this has been a great GP2 experience it's getting better every time, so I am very pleased and very grateful to everyone who has made this possible.”

Humphrey Corbett (Chief Race Engineer): “It's been a mixed day today we did a lot of background information work, simulation and tyre work on both cars that will help us for the future. Alexander finished the day P2 which is very satisfying, especially as he did it at the start of the session which was not necessarily the best time to try for but we thought it would simulate a qualifying time period. He drove exceptionally well and he was very happy with the race run we did. With Rodolfo we did some tyre temperature work which was very useful, he kept it on track and drove well so we are happy with that.”