26/04/09
SAKHIR (BAH) 25 APRIL 2009:
Edoardo Mortara was in reflective mood after his retirement from this afternoon's GP2 Asia Series Race following contact with a rival driver.
Edo had qualified 19th on Friday after a promising practice session which had given him and the team hope of fighting at the front of the field. A fantastic race start however, followed by some wonderful overtaking moves over the opening laps, moved him up into the top eight.
His hard work was undone however, as on exiting the pits after his compulsory pitstop he tangled with Alvaro Parente, as the Portuguese driver appeared not to see Edo on the inside line for the tight first corner at the Bahrain International Circuit. The impact broke Edo's front wing and forced his retirement on returning to the pits.
EDOARDO MORTARA:
Starting 19th I knew it would be difficult to do something, but I wanted to fight for a top ten position and I put all my effort into the race. My start was alright but I had too much wheelspin. Still, I passed maybe two or three cars and then I did a really good first corner and after some more moves I made my way up into the points. The tyres started to go away, so I eased off to keep the tyres in good condition and that allowed me to catch up to Parente and Chandhok in front of me. I tried to be calm and wait for the right moment. Parent did his pitstop and one lap later I took my stop. I exited and we were side by side at the end of the straight and we broke more or less at the same point, but he did his corner as if I was not there. I tried to avoid him but he turned as if I was not there and contact was impossible to avoid. He hit me pretty hard and that was it for both our races and it was a shame because I think a top ten result was possible.
I didn't do a good job in qualifying but we have a good set-up here and everything was working really well during the race. After seven or eight laps we had moved up from 19th to eighth, so it was a nice situation. But I'm the kind of driver that wants to see results so I'm not satisfied. I can't say that the way the race ended was not my fault, because I could have done better in qualifying and not been in that situation. Tomorrow we start from the back so I'll have to do it all again.
ARDEN INTERNATIONAL CAR #4 ENGINEER - CAMPBELL HOBSON:
We always change the car a little bit for the races but I don't think qualifying was a reflection of Edo or the car's pace. In practice he was seventh after making a mistake on his best lap so we should have been third and in qualifying he had a lot of traffic. I think he's still getting used to GP2 qualifying because for sure he's got the pace. Today he knew he needed a good start and to push his way up in the opening laps and he did exactly as he was asked. Pace wasn't a problem. We should have been top eight, but there was an incident that ruined two drivers' races.
The positives to take out of this are that you pretty much see every week someone who qualifies out of position and they can make it up into the top eight. So you have to keep pushing on and if you've got the right attitude you can do it. Today he did that, but unfortunately it didn't work out.
