Barwa Addax Team pick up points in Italy thanks to Haryanto

At the Italian Grand Prix, Barwa Addax Team managed to get back in among the points after Rio Haryanto brought his car home in 7th position in Sunday’s second race. Unfortunately, his team mate Jake Rosenzweig was not able to do the same, even though he deserved so much more for the work and the level he showed throughout the whole weekend.

Rio Haryanto

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

Jake started to show signs of his true potential, as well as the impressive progress he has made to finish his rookie season on a high. In the first race he made a good start climbing up to fifth position and was looking to make progress.

However, disaster struck when coming away from a bend where he was defending his position and race rhythm, he was overtaken by Dillmann who unfortunately hit him on the front right wheel causing such damage that he was forced to retire just when he was racing at a rhythm that was up there with the leading drivers.

He really had the chance of getting in among the points for the first time as well as assuring a good start position for Sunday’s second race. Unfortunately his bad luck did not end there. Jake was pumped up and raring to go for the second race when a problem with the clutch forced him to start from the pit lane.

All this meant that he started the race from last position. Once again the Young American driver demonstrated his professionality and set a rhythm that could have been up with the leaders as he climbed six positions to finish 18th.

Rio Haryanto, finished 19th in Free Practice but improved in the qualifyers as he set the twelfth fastest time to be halfway up the starting grid. He was hampered by incidents on the first lap and was initially relegated to 18th position. He managed to recover a few positions until lap 19 when he made his compulsory pit stop with tyre change.

He was able to improve his race rhythm in the second half of the race to finish in 14th position. After the race the team the team discovered problems with his first set of tyres due to loss of pressure, which obviously affected and conditioned his first stint before the pit stop. It could have been caused by a rear collision at the start of the race. In the second race, Rio had the challenge of starting from the middle of the main peloton of drivers.

He found the best solution possible, making a fantastic start with some spectacular overtaking and completed the first lap in 7th position. In this shorter second race he worked hard to keep up his race rhythm and not lose touch with the leading drivers. Without making any mistakes and well clear of his rivals behind he passed the chequered flag in a points scoring position.

The following race, which is the last but one of the present campaign in the 2013 GP2 Series, takes place in Singapour from the 21st-22nd of September. The championship will finish in Abu Dhabi in early November in the Formula 1 weekend there.

Barwa Addax Team