Fisichella Motor Sport International were in action with both its GP2 and Formula BMW teams this weekend at the Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom. Conditions over the weekend have been changeable, with sunshine on Friday before clouds, heavy wind and intermittent rainfall took over for Saturday and Sunday.
The GP2 weekend kicked off with Friday morning practice. Marko Asmer, who raced for FMSI for the first time at the last round in Magny Cours, completed 15 laps of testing with a fastest time of 1:29.109, and was 18th fastest in the session. His team-mate Roldan Rodriguez was one position behind with a lap time exactly one tenth slower after completing 17 laps.
It was a hard qualifying session for the team, with Roldan finishing 19th fastest, putting him on the tenth row, and Marko 22nd in the standings, setting himself up for an 11th row start. In a Saturday feature race that saw just three retirements, Roldan salvaged 11th place after moving up eight positions from his original starting slot. Marko finished in 20th position, two higher than his grid start. In a treacherous Sunday sprint race, Roldan fell victim to the awful conditions early on, with Marko crossing the line in 13th place after the 24 laps, seven places higher than his starting spot.
In the Formula BMW Europe Championship, FMSI fielded regulars Pedro Bianchini, Mihai Marinescu and Ollie Millroy. Qualifying went well for the team with Pedro taking fifth and third place grid slots for the first and second races respectively. Mihai qualified ninth for race one and sixth for race two. Ollie set himself up on the eighth row for each race, with 16th fastest in qualifying for race one and 15th fastest for race two. In Saturday's race, Pedro finished just off the podium in fourth position, with Mihai also collecting a strong points haul in seventh. Ollie finished in 24th position. Sunday's race saw Pedro take a fantastic first podium for the team with second place. Mihai finished in fourth place, just missing the podium, and Ollie crossed the line in tenth. After six of sixteen events, Fisichella Motor Sport International is now third in the championship with 149 points.
Races 11 and 12 of the GP2 Series will take place at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany on 19 and 20 July, with races seven and eight of the Formula BMW Europe championship taking place on the same weekend as support to the Formula One World Championship.
Paolo Coloni, Team Principal:
GP2: "Yesterday we had a good strong race with Roldan who was running in a solid P10 for the latter part of the race, and only fell to P11 on the last lap. Marko struggled a bit with the rear tyres which meant we had to make a strategy change and unfortunately he couldn't make up many places.
Today Roldan started from P11 but stalled at the start in very difficult conditions "; a lot of drivers had problems today "; and then he spun which put him out of the race. Marko spun twice on the first lap in the terrible conditions so it was a very difficult weekend for us.!;
Formula BMW: "In contrast to our GP2 weekend, the Formula BMW team enjoyed a very good weekend. We had some extremely strong results with Pedro and Mihai and to be third in the championship is very good for us in our first season competing in this championship.
I'm very pleased with the performance of the team. They keep on improving each weekend and we are enjoying this championship a lot."
GP2 - Saturday Race Result
1. Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) - 10pts
2. Lucas di Grassi (Campos) - 8pts
3. Karun Chandhok (iSport International) - 6pts
11. Roldan Rodriguez (FMS International)
20. Marko Amser (FMS International)
GP2 - Sunday Race Result
1. Bruno Senna (iSport International) - 6pts
2. Lucas di Grassi (Campos) - 5pts
3. Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) - 4pts
13. Marko Amser (FMS International)
DNF. Roldan Rodriguez (FMS International)
Formula BMW - Saturday Race Result
1. Esteban Gutierrez (Josef Kaufmann Racing)
2. Michael Christensen (Double R Racing)
3. Adrian Tambay (Eifelland Racing)
4. Pedro Bianchini (FMS International)
7. Mihai Marinescu (FMS International)
24. Ollie Millroy (FMS International)
Formula BMW - Sunday Race Result
1. Esteban Gutierrez (Josef Kaufmann Racing)
2. Pedro Bianchini (FMS International)
3. Adrian Tambay (Eifelland Racing)
4. Mihai Marinescu (FMS International)
10. Ollie Millroy (FMS International)
www.fisichellamotorsport.com
- Rebecca Banks-
