Team AirAsia Budapest Race 2 Report

This morning's eventful GP2 sprint race saw the Caterham Team AirAsia car of Luiz Razia pit twice twice during the wet-dry 28 laps around the Hungaroring. Unfortunately it was a difficult and fruitless race with Luiz just missing out on a points finish in seventh place at the chequered flag after two four- tyre changes.

Starting from sixteenth on the grid team mate Davide Valsecchi went out on wet tyres and pitted just once. Moving up the field Davide reached P7, but when a safety car was deployed during his change to slicks, it spoiled any chance of him gaining positions. Staying out on slicks the Italian struggled with tyre degradation in the closing laps of the race to finish fourteenth.

Now with a three week summer break the team will regroup and refocus before the Belgium round next month.

Phill Spencer: "It went from wet to dry to wet today! It's disappointing not to have scored any more points, but I am pleased with the pit stops they were very good. I am also pleased Luiz and Davide brought the cars home in one piece in such conditions. It was a difficult race for everyone, we were on the wrong part of the track with Davide but we made a gamble and left Davide out for the last seven laps instead of bringing him back in, but we will learn from this and move on. "

Luiz Razia (Best time 1:50.742 / P7): "My start was ok, I think I lost one place but the first part of the race was good. Then we changed to slicks and ran third when it started to rain again we changed back to wet tyres. Some people took the gamble and pitted earlier and it paid off. It was very difficult conditions today and I almost lost the car several times during the race. In the end there were just three drivers including myself that started at the front and finished up there too. We will now need to look into the strategies, but overall I am quite pleased with our choices, sometimes you just have to take the risk. During the summer break I have a lot of media meetings and I will be training hard to be prepared for Spa. I think it is my favourite track so I am really looking forward to the race there next month."

Davide Valsecchi (Best time: 1:52.360 / P14): "We were unlucky with the strategy today. We pitted, only to find a safety car deployed which didn't work in our favour. From a set up point of view we deserved P7, but it was a difficult race for the team to make the calls with the changing conditions and safety cars. We were not as competitive as we have been, but we will work hard during the break and try to make a good weekend in Spa, and return to the top five positions."

Davide Valsecchi

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

Humphrey Corbett: "It was a difficult race for us. Luiz finished just outside the points, which is a shame. Other teams took some big risks and today it paid off. When you are looking at a points finish you tend not to take such big risks, and with Luiz we didn't seem to have the pace of the other people. Race winner Coletti took the risks from the start and benefitted, so well done to them. Davide's race was sadly disrupted when he was in the pit lane whilst the safety car came out. When teams started to pit for a second time in the latter part of the race we decided to leave Davide out as it would have meant him coming last. It just didn't work for us today. We will move on & hopefully have a better race in Spa."

Next event: Spa, Belgium 26th - 28th August 2011

By: Team AirAsia