|
Andreas Zuber finishes sprint race on the Hungaroring in seventh place
Thus the 24-year-old Styrian only narrowly misses points
Following his excellent second place at the main race in Budapest things didn't go as well today for Andreas Zuber. The upswing of the last races - twice in second place - didn't quite continue on the Hungaroring and thus the Moser Medical Group-driver missed the hoped-for points by finishing seventh, if only narrowly.
The 24-year-old Styrian unfortunately couldn't repeat his fab-start from Saturday at today's 28-laps-run and already lost two positions at the beginning. "I probably was a bit over-motivated and risked too much at the start. I engaged the clutch too early", says Zuber. He additionally slipped off the circuit for a moment during the first lap and so Giorgio Pantano also went past him. "This happened because my rear suspension strongly oversteered. It was something I had to wrestle with during the whole race. I can't yet say why this happened. We'll have to analyse it thoroughly first", explains the Piquet Sports-driver.
After Pantano had overtaken his teammate Javier Villa in the fifth round, Zuber stayed close to the Spaniard but wasn't able to overtake him. "Furthermore, my speed simply wasn't good enought today and therefore I never really could put pressure on Villa. We changed several things at the car and that turned out not to be too good", said Andreas Zuber after the race. When di Grassi shoved Mike Conway off the circuit and was awarded a drive-throug-penalty Zuber moved up to eighth place. The fact that the Styrian then almost scored one point was also due to the misfortune of his Piquet Sports teammate Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelan, having taken up the run from fourth place, had fought his way up to third position when his engine failed three laps prior to the chequered flag and he had to give up.
Andreas Zuber nevertheless looks confidently into the near future despite the narrowly missed point: "At the town-circuit of Valencia at least a place on the podium should once more be possible."
The runs No 15 and 16 of the GP2-season 2008 will take place in the Spanish regional capital on August 23 and 24.
Result sprint race GP2 Budapest
1. Sebastien Buemi (Sui/Arden) 42:39,084
2. Andy Soucek (Spa/Super Nova) +7,978
3. Bruno Senna (Bra/iSport) +8,066
4. Sakon Yamamoto (Jap/ART) +14,075
5. Giorgio Pantano (It/Racing Enineering) +15,766
6. Javier Villa (Spa/Racing Engineering) +16,341
7. Andreas Zuber (Aut/Piquet Sports) +18,533
Driver overall ranking GP2 (after 14 of 20 runs)
1. Giorgio Pantano 65 points, 2. Bruno Senna 58 points, 3. Lucas Di Grassi 39 points, 4. Romain Grosjean 36 points, 5. Sebastien Buemi 34 points, 6. Andreas Zuber 32 points 7. Karun Chandhok 31 points, 8. Pastor Maldonado and Alvaro Parente 26 points each.
|
