Poor performance in Abu Dhabi qualifying for Super Nova

GP2 Asia Series - Round 2 Abu Dhabi – Qualifying


The qualifying session this evening proved to be much more competitive than round one, with the majority of teams drafting in their main series drivers for the event. However it was a rookie, Charles Pic, who claimed pole position.

Super Nova had high hopes for qualifying after their previous performance in Abu Dhabi with Josef Kral and the addition of Marcus Ericsson. Unfortunately these expectations weren’t fulfilled as both drivers struggled for pace and qualified towards the back of the grid.

A strategic decision by the team to be the first cars on track, in order to avoid traffic, backfired as the track improved significantly towards the end of Qualifying allowing drivers with fresher tyres to vault up the timesheets. Marcus Ericsson was also struggling to cope with an possible engine problem that caused his car to stutter on the throttle in the low speed corners.

The team is left frustrated and dissappointed by this performance and will be working extremely hard to overcome these problems in order to salvage something from the weekend.


Josef Kral - Car 15
Qualifying Classification: P15

“My time on the first set of tyres could have been a little bit better as I had traffic in the middle sector of my best lap. I think that perhaps we went out too early on the second set of tyres but I pushed as hard as I could, with my best lap good enough for P8 at the time, before other drivers went quicker at the end of the session.”

“Maybe we will have an advantage by saving tyres for tomorrow and I hope that this will allow me to overtake the cars in front and achieve a good result tomorrow.”


Marcus Ericsson - Car 14
Qualifying Classification: P21

“The car felt pretty good in practice although we were first out and the tyres were overheating towards the end, so I felt confident for qualifying. For my first qualifying run I had a lot of traffic and therefore couldn’t put a lap together. On the second run I felt lots of hesitation in the engine so I struggled to be fast and consistant, especially in low speed corners.”

“We just need to work hard to resolve this problem and do a better job in the race tomorrow.”


David Sears – Team Principal

“I’m sorry to say but we had a terrible qualifying performance today. The track was very dirty and we were the first team to send the drivers out on their second set of tyres and unfortunately the track became cleaner and quicker for the final few laps of the session, allowing the last cars on track to significantly improve their times.”

“Unfortunately we have ended up near the back of the grid, with an engine problem for Marcus not helping matters. This leaves us with a lot of work to do in the race tomorrow.”


- Super Nova -