Scuderia Coloni Abu Dhabi race 1 report

ABU DHABI, RACE 1: FIFTH PLACE FOR CECCON, TOP TEN FINISH FOR COLETTI

Scuderia Coloni closed the first race of the Abu Dhabi GP2 Finale with an amazing fifth place for Kevin Ceccon and a P10 finish for Stefano Coletti.

Kevin Ceccon

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

So the Italian team brought both their cars in the top ten as they already did in Qualifying, furthermore boasting a good recovery with Ceccon. The 18 year-old Italian, who was 7th on the grid, had an amazing start and managed to take P4 despite having to avoid Kral’s spinning car. In the following laps Kevin had a fair but close fight with Gutierrez, that came to an end when the Mexican was forced in the pits to change his rear wing, damaged in a collision at the start.

Ceccon kept P4 with no issues in the central part of the race, until the mandatory pit-stop. The tyre change saw Ericsson emerge from the pits just inches ahead of the Italian, who then decided to settle for a fifth place that was an amazing result, especially considering that Ceccon has contested just 4 race weekends in GP2 so far, and so he’s still a rookie.

Good race also for Stefano Coletti: the driver from Monaco had a great start, passing from P10 to P7 in just one corner, but then on the first lap his front wing was damaged in a race contact, spoiling the aero balance of the car.

Stefano coped with the issue in the best possible way and despite the odds he managed to finish tenth, the same position he had clinched in yesterday’s qualifying.

Kevin Ceccon: “I’m satisfied with this 5th place, it’s a great result, but I could have done even better without having to avoid Kral, who spun in front of me. Without that I could have been even third at the end of first lap; instead, apart from losing time, I even flat-spotted my front tyres not to hit him, and this hampered me for the whole race. Anyway I had a very good start, we were really quick and this gives me high hopes for tomorrow: starting from second row anything is possible”.

Stefano Coletti: “The car really had a great potential, so I’m pretty disappointed by the outcome of the race. Unluckily, the collision during lap 1 ripped a part of of my front wing off and from then on the car lost his aero balance. I tried to compensate as much as I could, but that also led to an early tyre wear that forced me to anticipate the pit-stop, making the second part of the race really tricky. Anyway the good side of it is that we are competitive, the pace is there and tomorrow we have another race to make up for this disappointment”.