Bridgestone Motorsport’s GP2 Series Report

Pastor Maldonado (Rapax) and Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova Racing) both took race victories in Valencia on Bridgestone’s soft specification dry tyre.

Despite the high temperatures experienced during the weekend, Bridgestone’s GP2 tyres performed well in terms of heat resistance, lap time performance and consistency.  

Saturday’s  30  lap  feature race provided Maldonado with his second victory of the season, the Venezuelan finishing  8.2  seconds  ahead  of  Jules  Bianchi  (ART  Grand  Prix).  The  opening  lap  was  incident  filled  with accidents at turn two and four bringing out an early safety car. After the racing resumed, pole sitter Sergio Perez  (Barwa  Addax)  spun  and  fell  to  the  back  of  the  field  after  contact  with  Davide  Valsecchi  (iSport International).  Sam  Bird  finished  third  behind  his  ART  Grand  Prix  team-mate,  and  Maldonado  set  the quickest lap.

Sunday’s sprint race also had early incidents and a safety car, the race being shortened to 22 laps following a  big  accident  involving  Josef  Kral  (Super  Nova  Racing).  Race  winner  Ericsson  overtook  Michael  Herck (DPR) before the first corner to lead throughout, claiming his first ever GP2 Series podium. Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax) finished second, with Herck third. Maldonado was awarded the point for fastest lap.

Maldonado  continues  to  lead  the  drivers’  championship  standings  with  42  points,  followed  by  Dani  Clos (Racing Engineering) and van der Garde both on 27. Rapax leads the teams’ championship with 62 points, Barwa Addax Team in second place on 46. ART Grand Prix now takes third place with 36 points.

The  GP2  Series  will be heading to Silverstone next, where  Bridgestone’s medium compound dry tyre has been allocated for the fifth round of the championship which takes place on 9-11 July.

Quote from Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development
“Congratulations to Pastor Maldonado for winning the feature race here in Valencia. He did well to control the level of tyre degradation, particularly at the beginning of the race when a heavy fuel load can potentially increase  the  degradation  of  the  tyres.  During  the  second  half  of  the  race,  after  the  pit  stops,  the  track conditions had improved substantially,  the degradation and wear rates of the tyres were as expected, and with  low  quantities  of  fuel  also,  the  lap  times  from  the  drivers  were  very  consistent.  Congratulations  to Marcus Ericsson for his win in the sprint race on Sunday. It was another eventful race, and we wish Josef Kral all the best for a speedy recovery following his accident.”