Conway ends year with top 10 finish

British single-seater rising star Mike Conway completed his first season in the GP2 Series at Valencia on Sunday with a ninth place finish for Super Nova International.

Mike started 11th after race stewards admitted there had been a timing failure in Saturday's feature race that had not acknowledged his first lap, as he started from the pitlane after a mishap on the dummy grid. That meant he was officially classified 11th in yesterday's results - and had given up tenth place when erroneously instructed to.

Mike was fired up for a good start after yesterday's drama, but it wasn't to be. His clutch was overheating as he lined up on the startline, and it meant he struggled away and lost places.

"When it finally released I got a load of wheelspin," he said. "I lost places to Ho-Pin Tung, Jason Tahinci and Luca Filippi. A couple touched going into the first corner, so I thought there'd be a crash, but there wasn't. I got up the inside of Tung a couple of corners into the race, but then got stuck behind Felipe Albuquerque."

Mike found a way past him on lap three, using his superior speed exiting the high-speed Turn 1, and was now in the top 10.

"After that I was really struggling with the car's balance," he said. "I stuck with the guys ahead for a while, but I was getting more and more oversteer. I just had to hold back from attacking, and the front brakes were locking too, which was unusual."

Mike had a lonely race to the finish, unable to catch Saturday's winner Vitaly Petrov in front, but quick enough to keep Albuquerque at bay.

"As the race went on, the front tyres lost grip, which actually helped balance out the car," said Mike. "Still, ninth place is not what we were aiming for this weekend, we expected more."

The GP2 series is the final stepping stone on a drivers path to Formula One, and with the races taking place at the Grands Prix, is a showcase of their talents in front of their peers and the F1 paddock. Conway is reigning British F3 champion and graduated to the GP2 series for this season.

Mike will now travel across Spain to Jerez this week, where he will test for at least one different team with a view to his planned second year in GP2.

"What I've learned this year about GP2 is that you never have a perfect car, you just have to deal with what you've got," said Mike. "I'm eager to take this experience and see what happens next year. We're going to test at Jerez with other teams and keep our options open for 2008."