The fourth seasonal round of the GP2 Asia Series came to an end at Losail, with the running of the second race of the Qatar weekend, still disputed under artificial light. Both cars fielded by Trident Racing ended the race without any technical inconvenience: rookie Davide Rigon ending up in 15th and Frankie Provenzano coming to checkered in 20th. The whole weekend was conditioned by an abnormal tire consumption, forcing many cars to end with literally no tread left. Despite the issues, the GP2 Asia Series provided a good show on the Qatar racetrack, with a much larger attendance than in the past rounds. The GP2 Asia Series will be back on-track at Sepang, as a support race for the Malaysian Grand Prix, on the next 5th of April. The GP2 Series activity of Trident Racing will continue at Paul Ricard, with the Main Series’ first collective test of 2009, taking place on March 11 and 12.
Davide Rigon (15th)
“If you look at this weekend from the outside, you could think the results didn’t live up with the expectations. From an inside view though, I see good reasons to be satisfied. I really got integrated with the whole team, and they appreciated my contribution. We have huge room for improvement, and things will start to get better with the new engine. On race 2 we were among the fastest but we suffered from graining issues that forced me to struggle a lot. In the final laps I was back on a roll, at the end of a race heavily conditioned by tire performance”.
Frankie Provenzano (20th)
“The whole weekend has been based on improving my situation after a troubled start. On Race 2, the overall results were conditioned by tire issues. The rubber’s graining forced me to fight with an incredible understeer since the early stages, and it was the first time for me to deal with such problems. In the second half, the situation appeared to improve and I started lapping on the same times of the leading pack, but tires suddenly let go, leaving me with an almost uncontrollable car in the closing laps. In the end, this one has been sort of an atypical weekend, as the track’s condition played a major role in how things ended up”.
| 
|