Scuderia Coloni Spa qualifying report

Filippi And Scuderia On First Row Again In Spa-Francorchamps

Luca Filippi

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

Scuderia Coloni will start from 2nd place in a GP2 Feature Race for the third time in a row. On the renowned Spa-Francorchamps track the all-italian pairing qualified on the front row of the grid, repeating the same result they already clinched in Nurburgring and in Budapest, confirming themselves as one of the Series' performance benchmarks.

Qualifying was held in very difficult conditions, mainly due to the changeable weather typical of the Belgian circuit: in the first 20 minutes the track was soaking wet, while in the final part of the session rain stopped falling, allowing the field to improve the laptimes.

In both situations Scuderia Coloni and Filippi were among the frontrunners, with the #19 car never getting below second place.

Then, with just a few minutes left, Filippi posted a 2'19”779 that was worth the provisional pole. With a track that was getting quicker every minute the Italian driver was going to improve again but his best lap was ruined when Pic's car stopped in Blanchimont and the marshals started waving their yellow flags. In order to guarantee the marshals safety Luca decided not to improve and aborted his lap, while Vietoris didn't slow down and took pole.

Scuderia Coloni's qualifying was made even better thanks to the fifth place clinched by Michael Herck, his best starting position this year. The Romanian had already showed a very good feeling with the car posting the second quickest time in the morning Free Practice, and in Qualifying he confirmed that a wet track wasn't enough to change his good feeling with a good 2'20”748.

Paolo Coloni: “Again the team did an amazing job, making the right choices with the cars' setup even if the weather didn't make it easy. The drivers deserve to be praised also: with Luca we are getting used to front row starts, which is not bad at all, and it's great to see Michael in such a good shape, quick both on the dry and on the wet. Obviously we know that there's still a lot to do, but we have some very good feelings looking to tomorrow”.

Luca Filippi: “Being on the front row again is great, but on the other side I'm also a bit frustrated because pole was really in our reach today. The track was improving and I was on a flyer when the yellow flags came out, I was much quicker than in the previous lap. Anyway we have a lot to be happy with, the car was quick in both our tries, and this means that we took the right direction with the balance. Starting from front row should help us to stay away from troubles tomorrow, and then we should have the pace to aim for the win”.

Michael Herck: “The team was perfect today, we did really a great job even if the day was a strange one. In the morning the track was damp and we had just three laps on the dry, but despite this we were quick from scratch. Then in qualifying the conditions were really bad, but we took some good decisions with the set-up and then every change we did improved the car. The yellows at the end of the session were a pity, I could have improved my laptime by as much as one second...”.