Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona - 10/5/13

Practice – 12.00 – 12.30
Car #15 – Alexander Rossi – P14 – 1:31.528

Qualifying: 15.55 – 16.25
Car #15 – Alexander Rossi – P17 - 1:29.804

The first European GP2 session of 2013 got underway in Barcelona at midday with the morning rain abating just in time for drying track conditions which remained for qualifying.

The morning practice yielded useful information on long hard tyre runs as per the engineering programme, preparing the drivers for the race.

Both drivers feel they are out of position and expected to be slightly further up the grid following qualifying but they are upbeat about the race tomorrow and still have a chance to fight for a good points finish.

Team Manager Phill Spencer “After the first two flyaway races it is great to be back in Europe at an event which we love and at a track where we had a great result with a win last year. Barcelona also has the added bonus of being Sergio’s home race and he has a great deal of supporters at the track.

“The first day of practice and qualifying is now over and although we are not as high up the grid as we had hoped, the guys did a solid job and we are optimistic that they can still have a good race tomorrow.”

Chief Engineer Humphrey Corbett “Qualifying was not quite as we expected - I thought we had a fair chance of getting both cars into the top ten after testing.

“In Sergio’s case he was reasonably happy with the balance of the car and with Alexander he had a perfectly balanced car on his first run and made no changes, but on the second run he picked up a lot of understeer which we will look into tonight.

“Whether we sent both drivers out too early for their second run is a consideration as the track may have rubbered in later in the session, however some people set their fastest times on the first run so it is hard to say.

“I am disappointed but we will push as always tomorrow.”

Alexander Rossi “The track was still damp during practice this morning which made predicting the setup for qualifying a little difficult. The sun came out for qualifying and we tried something a little bit tricky with the strategy, which I don’t think was the wrong decision, but we missed the balance on the car a bit and I am obviously disappointed being 17th.

“This is not what anyone was expecting so in the race we have the opportunity to be a bit creative with the strategy to try and make it work and get into the top eight.″