Race Report

Formula 1 Gran Premio de Espana 2015
GP3 SERIES

Circuit: Barcelona (E), Length: 4.655 km, 9^th/10^th May 2015, Rounds 1 & 2
www.circuitcat.com

JENZER MOTORSPORT 2015:
Pal Varhaug (NOR), Mathéo Tuscher (CH) and Ralph Boschung (CH)

Difficult start in Barcelona

The GP3 Series teams met for the first event of the season as part of the Formula One programme at the Gran Premio de Espana 2015, held on the challenging Barcelona circuit in Spain. The sun shone throughout the weekend, and the pleasant conditions went a long way towards making it very obvious just how close the competition is within the 24-strong field.

Race One Qualifying

Saturday, 09/05/15, 09.45 – 10.15, Weather: Sunny, 18°C

Free practice on Friday evening took place in warm conditions and on a dry track. Our drivers were running well with Mathéo an excellent 3^rd, Ralph in a very good 7^th and Pal 14^th.
The track stayed dry for the first qualifying session of the new season, which was very fast in the slightly cooler morning temperatures. Our drivers achieved very good positions and lap times were very close across the whole field, 18 drivers finishing up within a second of the best time.

GP3 Series

Race One (40 Minutes)

Saturday, 09/05/15, 17.20, Weather: Sunny, 26°C

The first start of the season went well. In a change to last year’s practice the length of this first race had been extended by 10 minutes to a total of 40 minutes. The hard challenge for everyone now was to keep the new tyres in good shape over the distance. Mathéo held his 5^th place well and kept up with the pace of the top group, and Pal initially held his 7^th place as well. However seven laps in to the race he started losing ground, and lap after lap he fell ever further back. Ralph came back in 14^th at the end of the first lap and hung onto his midfield position until Morris launched an attack which didn’t go well. Morris collided with Ralph, and both cars sustained damage and spun off. Morris had to start from the pitlane for the second race for causing the collision. The Safety Car was deployed immediately and took the field over for several laps. At the restart Pal dropped back even further, taking the chequered flag in 21^st. Meanwhile Mathéo was under pressure from Kirchhofer at the restart, but was able to defend his position for several laps. Eriksson and Mardenborough were also pushing their way up the order and suddenly the whole field was in motion. With the exception of the top three nearly everybody changed places at least once. By lap 20 Mathéo had fallen back to 9^th, and at the end of 22 laps he crossed the finish line in 15^th. We never imagined such a defeat could happen; on the contrary, we were convinced that the long distance runs which we executed during the test days had gone very well. Conditions for the second race on Sunday morning were going to be different again but unfortunately our drivers were starting from a very difficult position now.

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, 10/05/15, 09.25, Weather: Sunny, 19°C

The sun was shining again on Sunday morning, although the temperature was somewhat cooler. However, once again the big issue for everyone was how long the tyres would last. Mathéo made a good start and was able to move up to 10^st over the first few laps. He held the position for the best part of the race but on laps 14 and 15 (out of 17) he lost a few places, before he was able to stabilize the situation and hang onto 13^st place until the finish. Ralph started very well too and made steady progress through to 15^st. Later he lost a place fighting with Janosz, but then managed to gain two positions, crossing the line in 14^st, right behind Mathéo. Pal was nearly involved in an accident at the start and ran wide, dropping back to 24^st. It took him a while to find his rhythm, but once he did he was able to work his way forward over several laps, finishing the race in 18^st.

We are now looking forward to the next race at the RedBull Ring in June.

Championship standings after 2 out of 16 races:

1^st Esteban Ocon (F), 29 points; 2^nd Marvin Kirchhofer (D), 27 points; 3^rd Luca Ghiotto (I), 23 points; 4^st Jann Mardenborough (GB) 22 points; 5^st Emil Bernstorff (GB), 21 points; 6^st Jimmy Eriksson (SWE), 20 points

2015 GP3 Series

For more information:

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