Tonbridge’s Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was delighted with his performance and results in the Monaco GP2 race this weekend.
In the feature race Adrian came back from a disastrous qualifying session to finish in eighth place in his first race in the principality.
Then in the sprint race on Saturday afternoon Quaife-Hobbs who started from pole came home in second place to net his first ever GP2 podium, and there is no better racetrack in the world on which to get on the podium.
For once it was probably a good thing to be starting from last on the grid in race one, as Adrian managed to dodge the first corner pile-up that took nine other racing drivers and their cars out of the race.
Speaking after his best race weekend in GP2 so far a pleased Quaife-Hobbs said: “I had a great start. I was quite surprised when I looked into my mirrors to see how big a lead I had going up the hill. But there was a little bit of rain and I focused on warming the rear tyres and I think I did not put quite enough heat in the fronts because I just under steered in the Casino and everyone caught me up.”
“Then going through the next laps I was really trying hard to pull a gap and I did manage a small one under the back straight with Stefano. Then he got in my slipstream.”
“I thought he was a bit too far back to have a go. I braked late and I locked up. I looked into my mirror and Stefano was just there just coming straight down the inside. I tried to release the brake to get back ahead, but there was nothing I could do.”
“He was pretty committed to that move. I think if I tried to defend we would not have made the corner. There was no point in trying. I settled down and followed him hoping I would be able to attack him towards the end of the race.”
“I am delighted to get my first podium, which after the disaster in qualifying, is a great result. We proved yet again that we have the race pace, now we must focus on sorting the issues we’re having in qualifying.”
“I cannot believe the turn around. To come from the very last spot on the grid for race one, to take my first podium finish is a great result. Having half the field go out in race one was naturally a big help, I don’t think I’ve ever made up 13 places in one lap before!
“It’s now four weeks until the next round, and we need to look into improving our qualifying form so that we’re not playing catch-up in the races.”
The next GP2 action comes from the British GP weekend from Silverstone over the weekend of the 28th to 30th June.