Conway delight at points on debut
15 April 2007
British Formula 3 champion Mike Conway was delighted to come away with a fifth place finish and two valuable championship points on his GP2 series debut held this weekend at the Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix.
A top ten qualifying slot was a welcome start for the Kent driver with 10th on the grid offering up the potential of a strong showing in the race, especially as Super Nova team-mate Luca Filippi had set pole position. Yet before Mike was able to demonstrate his pace in race conditions it was all over, a broken gear selector barrel leaving his Dallara-Renault stranded on the grid in the first of the two races this weekend.
With GP2 using the finishing order from the Saturday feature race to decide the grid for the Sunday morning sprint (with the top eight reversed), Mike lined up back in 24th place. However, he made an excellent start, and with a first corner pile-up causing chaos on the opening lap, he leapt into the top 10.
"Everyone was going to the outside and left the door open on the inside, so I decided to dive down there. When I got to the first corner there were suddenly three cars spinning up ahead of me! But I was able to nip inside of them and come through. I made up 14 places, which is pretty incredible."
After two safety car periods, the race began in earnest and Mike was able to show the speed he was confident of demonstrating in the Feature before bad luck intervened. He pulled off some clean and well-executed passing moves to home in on one of the top six points-scoring places.
"Today we were going to try to get fastest lap and maybe make it into the top 10, but when we in the top 10 after the first lap and I was able to start picking people off. But it certainly wasn't easy. I was having to fight with a lot of cars for a lot of laps. But to come away with two points after the disappointment of yesterday was a great result and I'm very happy with that."
In the final stages of the race, Mike battled with former Spanish F3 champ Borja Garcia for fourth, while holding off Red Bull F1 tester Michael Ammermuller behind him in sixth. There were a few moments when the rivals ran two abreast, but Mike was able to hold on.
"It was a tough situation in the end trying to attack the car in front while defending from behind too. Garcia made a little mistake and I was able to get a run on him, but he was a bit naughty and weaved twice on the straight and forced me to go on the outside. I knew that that would give Ammermuller a chance, so I just focused on the exit to get a good drive out of the corner and I was able to hold him off."
There is a now a four-week break before the next GP2 event, held at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain over May 12-13. Mike believes he could be a podium contender on the form shown this weekend.
"It's very close this year. The Super Nova guys have done a great job and have come up with a really good car as you can see from the results Filippi got. After this weekend I'm sure that we will be capable of winning races this year."
