The second round of the GP2 Series made its long awaited return to the track after a month away at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
It was a welcome return to the track for Kent’s Adrian Quaife-Hobbs after a month away from the Rapax team, and he came away with a brace of ninth place finishes.
Having had a poor qualifying session due to a number of issues, Adrian had it all to do starting the feature race from 22nd on the grid.
It did underline his race craft as he carved his way through the field in race one, finishing the 36 lap race in ninth place, his third straight points finish.
Speaking after race one, Adrian said: “After the outcome of qualifying, having scored two points is a handsome reward for our efforts. The opening stages of the race have been quite eventful, and after the first laps it hasn’t been easy to keep a consistently quick pace because the soft tyres wore out pretty fast.
“After the pit-stop, I went back-on track determined to get more places back, but again the tyre wear conditioned the last part of our run so it was difficult to pass our rivals. Anyway I’m happy with my position because it enables me to keep fighting for points”.
That points scoring run wasn’t to continue in the second race of the weekend on Sunday when Quaife-Hobbs took to the track in the sprint race.
He started from ninth where he finished in race one and after a rather uneventful run that would be the position that he finished it at the end of the race, to finish just outside the points.
Giving his thoughts after the second race, Adrian added: “In the closing stages I suffered from tyre degradation and I ended up without a shot at the point’s zone. At the start I battled my way up the field and recovered some places.
“At the third corner the cars I had in front braked very early, and while I managed not to hit the others, I was forced to slow down and lose ground. After this incident I set a good pace but lap after lap the front tyres started to lose grip and I struggled everywhere on the track. Now I look forward to Monte Carlo, where I scored a podium finish last year”.
The GP2 season now takes to the track for the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix in just ten days’ time, where Adrian will be looking to replicate his results of last year.