Race incidents ruin the day for Racing Engineering in the Monza Sprint Race. 06.09.2015: The weather at Monza continued to be sunny and warm for today’s 21

The weather at Monza continued to be sunny and warm for today’s 21 lap Sprint Race although, with the morning start, the air and track temperatures of 19° and 25° respectively were lower than yesterday.


Following Saturday’s Feature Race Jordan King, who finished 8th, was starting from pole position on the reversed grid for the second weekend in succession with Alexander Rossi, who took a stunning victory yesterday, back on the fourth row in 8th and both of the Racing Engineering cars were racing on the Pirelli P Zero Orange hard compound tyres.


As the lights went off Jordan was slow away dropping to 3rd and as the cars entered the first corner the Racing Engineering driver was unable to avoid contact with Nato and he lost his front wing and he had to return to the pits at the end of the opening lap to retire as a result of the damage to the front of his car.


Alexander lost a couple of places to Leal and Visoiu away from the grid but despite contact with another car the young American was able to pass Leal immediately and although he had a slight off track moment at the first chicane he was able to finish the opening lap in 9th.


The Racing Engineering car was now pressing Visoiu but on lap six the Rapax car missed it’s braking into the first chicane and Alexander closed onto the gearbox of the Visoiu and on the approach to the second chicane he used his DRS to pass the Romanian driver to take the position but Visoiu missed his braking once again and hit Alexander, putting both cars off the track and out of the race.


A very disappointing Sprint Race for the Racing Engineering team after the success of yesterday’s Feature Race but both of the drivers know that they are now potential winners at every weekend and they will be looking forward to returning to the track at the next round at! Sochi in Russia on the 19th of October.

    

Thomas Couyotopoulo, Sporting Director of Racing Engineering:

"We are very disappointed today to not score both points and to be on the podium. The starts for both drivers were not good enough to keep their positions but Alex recovered well during the first lap. Unfortunately Visoiu pushed him out under braking in turn 4, sending him into a spin and retirement.


As for Jordan, he was fighting at the start in corner 1 and had contact with Nato, which damaged his car and forced him to retire."

 


Jordan King:

"My start was not very good so I lost two places. On the run down to turn one Nato over slowed his car so I tried to go up the inside and there wasn't enough space on the inside so contact was made and I sustained damage to my front left wishbone and couldn't continue."



 
Alexander Rossi:

"My start was poor so that put me immediately on the back foot. I was settling in to the race and felt that the car underneath me was quick. Unfortunately after I passed Visou I immediately got hit in the back which caused me to spin and ended our race.


Fortunately we had a great day yesterday but we are all clearly disappointed with today. I’m looking forward to Sochi already.”

 
- Ines Koschutnig - photos GP2