Race Reports

Magny-Cours 01/07/2007

Magny Cours Race 2

The podium three was covered by just over one second this morning, with Super Nova’s Luca Filippi claiming his fourth podium finish this season to finish 2nd, closing the driver championship lead by just 8 points.

Under watery skies and changeable conditions Luca successfully battled with Giorgio Pantano for 3rd position, and then when race leader Nicolas Lapierre locked up, was promoted to his rewarding 2nd place finish.

Meanwhile team mate Mike Conway drove a promising race from 9th on the grid , taking advantage and moving up a spot when Bruno Senna went wide. The British driver carved his way up to the important point scoring top six, challenging all the while. Disaster struck however when he got stuck in fourth gear, within 10 laps of the end, forcing him to retire early into the pits.

Racing Engineering’s Javier Villa won today’s sprint race just 0.6 seconds ahead of Luca, who was closely followed by yesterdays race winner Giorgio Pantano in third.

Team Principal David Sears: “After another exciting race with cars flying off the track everywhere, particularly because it was damp on the opening laps. Luca kept his head down and was clearly the fastest man on the track for the first half of the race. Luca challenged for the lead, but could not pass Javier Villa. He did however overtake Giorgio Pantano, to take the runner’s up position.

Mike drove another storming race, look set for top six , when his hydraulic pump failed and lead to immediate retirement. As the team head for the next race in Silverstone we hope that Mike will be in a front running position along with team mate Luca, to also challenge for the team championship, where we currently lay third.”

 Mike Conway  “Unfortunately the hydraulic pressure caused my car to stick in fourth, which is a real shame. However the car was really consistent. I preserved the tyres well, and was really catching up to Petrov before I had to retire I am looking forward to Silverstone.”

 Luca Filippi “From starting 16th yesterday to 2nd today is really, really pleasing! At the beginning I was definitely quickest, but when I got to the top two, I just couldn’t pass, and didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. The championship is now even tighter so it is really open.  Our pace is good everywhere, so we just have to try to be on top again at Silverstone.”