Racing Engineering Monza race 2 report

A great win for Vietoris and Racing Engineering at the last race of the 2011 GP2 Series.

Christian Vietoris celebrates his victory on the podium

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

Racing Engineering closed the 2011 GP2 season from the top of the podium after driver Christian Vietoris won the Sprint Race run today at the Monza circuit.

The points scored thanks to this win means also that the Spanish team finishes third in the GP2 teams championship.

Vietoris' win got its basis at the start when the Racing Engineering driver made a spectacular away from the third position of the grid. Vietoris passed the two cars in front of him to take first position at the end of the straight. Now Christian started to push, followed closely by Fabio Leimer, and both started a close duel leaving behind the rest of the field behind.

Dani Clos also made a good start from thirteenth position, getting up to eighth at the end of the first lap, following very closely the cars of Esteban Gutiérrez and Adam Carroll, who were lying in sixth and seventh positions.

Over the first laps, Leimer put some pressure on Vietoris, trying to overtake him a couple of times, but Christian controlled the attacks by his rival perfectly and from the sixth lap started to pull away slightly, keeping an advantage between 6 of 8 tenths over the Rapax Team driver.

With a car that was running perfectly, the Racing Engineering driver stayed at the front to the end, crossing the finishing line first after leading from start to finish to win the final race of the season.

Clos, for his part, was able to overtake Adam Carroll on lap 14 to get seventh position and in the final seven laps closed on Esteban Gutiérrez, in the fight for the sixth position, but was finally just half a second away.

The win taken by Vietoris allows Racing Engineering to finish third in the team championship after a really positive season for the Spanish team that was once again one of the most competitive in the strongest F1 feeder series.

Team Quotes:

Dani Clos: “It has been an intense race. Today I started well and I was able to put myself in a good position. I was very aggressive from the beginning trying to get in the points for the team, I almost managed it but was not quite able to take Gutierrez. I am happy with the third position of the team in the championship after the hard start and even though I would like to have scored more points in the Driver this year it was not to be.”

Christian Vietoris: “Obviously at the start the goal was to win the race, we made some changes over night, some worked some didn't but we had a good pace and then just needed to drive to the end (laugh)!! Leimer was always in my tow so I could not get away but I managed the gap.”

Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón, president of Racing Engineering: “A fantastic job by both drivers. Great starts, especially Chris, and a well-deserved race win for him. Congratulations to the entire team. Not only did they do a fantastic job this weekend, but also the whole season. Finishing third in the team championship is a just reward. Even if we had a difficult start to the season, the hard work paid off and we are more than ready for next year.”