Following yesterdays qualifying car 25 started P7 and car 24 P8. Due to continued bad weather the race was started behind the safety car with Simon in car 25 and Ben in car 24. When the race went green both drivers made up places. After one hour the conditions started to worsen and the safety car was once again deployed, at this time car 24 was P4 and car 25 P6. At one hour and 20 minutes the race was suspended under a red flagged due to the fog. The race was then resumed at 12:50. Just after the restart car 25 hit some trouble and made contact with the barrier resulting in a pit stop to change the front end and forced the car a lap down.

With conditions not letting up the safety car was once again brought out at just over the two hour mark with car 24 running in P2, the car then pitted for a full service including driver change to JEV. Just as the track went green the safety car was once again deployed due to contact between car 24 and car 13.

After racing as high as P1 and with just one hour and a half to go, the race was once again suspended under a red flag. At this stage car 24 was P5 and car 25 was P7. As there was no improvement in the weather the race wasn’t  restarted. The strategy that the team were following would have gained it a number of positions if the race had resumed but unfortunately it wasn’t.

Graeme Lowdon, President and Sporting Director

“Today was a tough race with ever changing conditions, safety cars and red flags. Unfortunately we were extremely unlucky that the race was not restarted because we would have gained a lot of places on the strategy that we on but that is racing. We are now looking forward to our second home race of the year and hope we can achieve a good result there.”

Jean Eric Vergne, Driver Car 24
“It was a fun race to race under these conditions. Unfortunately, we got a little caught up with one of the safety cars, it is always difficult to get it right and you need to have a bit of luck in these kind of races. I think we gained a place in the championship so that is good for the team. We need to look to the last two races and try and get podiums in the last two races.”

Ben Hanley, Driver Car 24
“Very difficult race due to the strategy, a lot of safety cars made it a lottery. We made some great calls and would have been in a great position if the race had stayed or restarted but as it is we will take moving up a place in the championship.”

Vitaly Petrov, Driver Car 25
“I think in general we were happy with the balance of the car except I think we should have changed the tyres every stop to be more competitive because the first stint we were as quick as the top two but after pit stop we struggled. The race was interesting as it was all wet and there was too much fog which lead to so many safety cars and red flags.”

Simon Trummer, Driver Car 25
“The race was quite difficult at the beginning there was a lot of water on track. The first few laps the times were ok and I matched the others. After a few laps my tyres dropped quick so I was losing time. The visibility was very bad and the track was full of water so red flag. At the restart it was difficult to bring the temps in but then the pace was OK, in the last sector I was fighting with Piquet but then I crashed and damaged the front end so had to pit which lost us a lap so I am sorry to the team for this.”