Sentul, Indonesia – February 16 2008. Fairuz Fauzy
has won pole position for tomorrow’s GP2 Asia Series
race after Feature Race winner Luca Filippi was excluded
following post-race scrutineering checks. It’s the
Malaysian’s second pole in GP2 Asia – in just
the second meeting of the new series!
Filippi’s disqualification promotes Fairuz to eighth
position in the final classification, resulting in pole
for the reverse grid for Sunday’s Sprint Race. Filippi
was disqualified from his win after he was found to have
illegally used tyres allocated for his team-mate. Sebastian
Buemi was handed victory and Fairuz gained a place up after
originally finishing ninth.
“It’s unbelievable that he’s been excluded
because that gives me the chance to start from pole tomorrow,” said
Fairuz. “It was tough because I was in eighth place
for a lot of the race, until Senna beat me on the final
lap – so I’m very lucky to get this reprieve.”
A fortnight after his duties at the Australian circuit
of Eastern Creek for A1 GP Team Malaysia, Fairuz was back
in action at the second weekend of the newly-formed GP2
Asia Series, competing at the 2.4-mile Sentul International
circuit in West Java.
Early running at the Indonesian circuit was hampered by
rain and Fairuz was 13th quickest in the wet free practice
session. Then, on a drying surface, he recorded the fifth
quickest time in qualifying, but the Super Nova ace was
then demoted five places on the starting grid for passing
the start/finish line twice, at the end of the session.
“It wasn’t just me, a number of drivers did
the same,” said Fairuz. “But it was impossible
to see the chequered flag because of the spray and the
dirt being thrown up from the track surface.”
The event was one of attrition which featured no fewer
than 16 retirements. Conditions at the Indonesian circuit
were extremely tough as drivers struggled with the deteriorating
conditions of the track surface. Starting tenth, the Super
Nova driver knew he had a car set-up for a decent result
for the first of the double-headed races. After the safety
car was deployed for the opening lap incident, Fairuz was
one of the first drivers to dive into the pits for his
mandatory tyre stop. In those early stages he was running
right behind Sebastian Buemi (who would ultimately win).
“We could have got a podium here this afternoon,
as we had our pit stop very early and I was running behind
Buemi and nearly everyone in front of us still had to make
a pit stop. But then unfortunately I ran wide on the exit
of Turn Four, the car hit the kerb and I spun. It was a
real shame,” said Fairuz.
But over the remaining 30 laps the 25-year-old drove magnificently
to climb back up through the field, in the tricky surface
conditions, taking full advantage of the numerous retirements
to get back into the top ten.
“It was very hard out there because the track surface
was breaking up and stones were flying up into my visor
and we’ve also got small holes in the sidepod of
the car where they were causing damage,” added the
Malaysian. “Plus after pitting so early my tyres
were worn at the end and I just couldn’t hold back
Bruno Senna who nabbed seventh place with two corners of
the race remaining!”
Results
GP2 Asia Series, Sentul, Feature Race:
DSQ Luca Filippi, Qi-Meritus Mahara, 46 laps in 1h 10m
27.834s
1 Sebastian Buemi, Trust Team Arden +0.182s
2 Adrian Valles, Fisichella Motor Sport +9.388s
8 Fairuz Fauzy, Super Nova Racing, +48.867s
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