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Race Reports
Istanbul 26/08/2007
Istanbul
Recharged after a 3-week break, Super Nova arrived earlier this week in Istanbul, Turkey, the only city to straddle the two continents Europe & Asia. The team collected 2 worthy points & remains a resolute third in the championship.
On track action began positively as Luca Filippi qualified fantastically, 3tenths of a second quicker than anyone else, & pole position for Saturdays grid start. Happy with the team and car, the Italian made a good start, following Zuber into the first corner. In 2nd Luca looked strong; quicker than the iSport driver. But in Corner 11 the low pressure tyres caused the car to bottom out, & caught the driver off guard, unfortunately ending his feature race on the spot. Luca however redeemed himself in today’s shorter sprint race, storming from 24th at the back of the grid, right through to an impressive 7th at the flag.
British F3 Champion Mike Conway, began confidently doing a great job on Friday qualifying 12th on his first ever visit to the Istanbul Speed Park. However due to a yellow flag infringement, Mike having made an honest mistake passing Karun Chandhok (Durango) in the yellow flag zone, was penalised seven places for Saturday grid. Making two great starts & gaining valuable positions, both his Feature and Sprint race were cut frustratingly short. He went wide at turn one on Saturday & the car snapped into a spin, before getting hit by 2 cars, damaging the steering. Determined to storm through to the front in Sunday’s Sprint race, the Brit braked hard into Turn 7 closing in on ART’s Sebastien Buemi. Unfortunately though having previously passed the Trident car, Kohei Hirate braked too late into the same corner slamming into the back of the Super Nova car, taking him out of the race on the first lap.
Team Principal David Sears “We scored two points this weekend, so all isn’t lost. Luca qualified brilliantly and charged through to finish a strong 7th position today. Mike was unlucky at his first outing here. He got caught up in incidents that cost him the weekend. However we have two quick cars, so the whole team are looking forward to Monza in a couple of weeks time.”
Mike Conway said “I made a good start Saturday, but went too wide on turn one, & the rear just stepped away from me, & I was then collected by Soucek and Zaugg. I got going again, but the car was damaged & when I pitted the team called it not to carry. Unfortunately this morning, I was once again taken off by someone else, just as I was getting going. I am now looking ahead to Monza and onwards, where I know the tracks. They should be good ones for the team.”
Luca Filippi “Qualifying pole was just great! However before Saturdays race we decided together to drop the tyre pressures & pit later, and as I went into the corner, I wasn’t prepared & lost control. I am very sorry for the team. However I have been very happy with the car and team this weekend, & today’s P7 result proves we have a good car.”