Race Report

Formula 1 Gran Premio de Espana 2011
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Barcelona (E), Lenght 4.655 km, 21^st/22^nd May 2011, Rounds 3 & 4
www.circuitcat.com

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2011:
Nico Müller (CH), Maxim Zimin (RUS) and Vittorio Ghirelli (I)

First points for Müller in Barcelona

The ten GP3 Series teams met again for the second event of the season as part of the Formula One program of the Gran Premio de Espana 2011, held on the challenging Barcelona circuit in Spain. This time the sun shone throughout the weekend, and the uniformly pleasant conditions meant it was even more obvious just how close the competition is within the 30-strong field.

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Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 21/05/11, 08.45 – 10.15, Weather: Sunny, 18°C

Nico put himself under a lot of pressure because he desperately wanted to achieve a good result. The fastest lap time in the second free practice once again proved his potential, and the competition in qualifying was intense with provisional pole changing hands repeatedly. Nico ended up 7^th on the grid for Race One. Vittorio put in a steady and consistent effort to run at midfield pace during both free practices and then managed to improve further in qualifying, being rewarded with 13^th place at the end of the session. Maxim, who got it badly wrong in free practice with a number of off-track excursions also improved greatly today, setting exactly the same lap time as Vittorio, though because he set the time later in the session, he would start from 14^th.

GP3 Series

Race One (30 Minutes

Saturday, 21/05/11, 17.20, Weather: Sunny, 26°C

The race started under blazing Spanish sunshine, with the first lap battle proving appropriately overheated too. Sims, who was one place behind Maxim on the grid, attempted an impossible move at the start and crashed into Maxim, propelling Maxim into the gravel trap and damaging his car. The fact that Sims had to limp into the pits and retire from the race was no consolation at all, nor was the fact that Sims was later penalised 10 places on the grid for Sunday’s race either, because that just meant he was again one place behind Maxim. Nico, on the other hand, made a good start, overtook Melker and was up to 5^th by the end of the first lap. He never lost touch with Caldarelli, and tried to pressure the Italian into a mistake, but the opportunity never arose to get past, so he settled for an impressive 5^th and his first points of the season rather than take an unnecessary risk and throw it all away. Further back Vittorio had worked his way up to 10^th after the start and was soon able to overtake Yelloli, who appeared to have a damaged car. He then closed in on Pal Kiss, but again no gap presented itself and anyway in the middle stages of the race he came under pressure from Bottas, and had to devote his energies to defending his position and eventually managing to pull away from the Finn to come home in 9^th.
The grid for the second race of the weekend was set by reversing the order of the first eight finishers in the first race, with the rest of the places set according to finishing order in the first race.

GP3 Series

Race Two (30 Minutes)

Sunday, 22/05/11, 09.25, Weather: Sunny, 22°C

Starting from an excellent 4^th place on the grid, Nico failed to move at the start, and although most of the drivers behind managed to avoid him, Stockinger couldn’t and hit him square on then spun and collected Sims. The three cars all sustained substantial damage, though fortunately none of the drivers were hurt. The Safety Car took the field over immediately, and it was several laps before the damage was cleaned away. The team later established that the driveshaft had broken on Nico’s car, leaving him stranded and robbing him of the opportunity to gain another good result through no fault of his own.

Vittorio was 9^th after the start and Maxim 25^th but gained ground after the restart when Vainio and Calado, who were in front of Vittorio, were both awarded Drive Through penalties for jumping the start. However, Chaves got ahead of Vittorio at the restart which meant Vittorio was now 8^th, a position he would hold for the reminder of the race. He was promoted to 7^th when Chaves was warded a time penalty for overtaking under the Safety Car, so it was an excellent result for Vittorio. Maxim, who started right at the back, managed to avoid the start line accident and steadily moved up through the order during the race, eventually coming home 19^th.

Championship standings after 4 out of 16 races:

1^st Nigel Melker (NED), 22 points; 2^nd Andrea Caldarelli (I), 20 points; 3^rd Mitch Evans (NZ), 17 points; 4^th Alexander Sims (GB), 8 points; 5^th James Calado (GB), 8 points; 6^th Tom Dillmann (F), 8 points; 13^th Nico Müller (CH), 4 points

2011 GP3 Series

For more information:

• www.gp3series.com
• www.italiaracing.net