Yelmer twelfth in first race at Bahrein
26-02-2010
Michael Herck stalled at the start right in front of Yelmer’s car. While swirling around the German’s car he lost about three positions but before the compulsory pit-stops came in play he had regained most of the lost terrain. In fact he was 13th when he came in for fresh tyres. Like many other teams opted for the crew didn’t change all four tyres. In Yelmer’s case the Ocean Racing Technology team restricted it to only the rear ones. Which led to serious understeer problems during the first laps after the stop. “I had lots of grip on the rear causing some serious understeer when turning in. Which remained when I accelerated halfway faster corners? But at the exit I had sudden oversteer”, Yelmer explained the first few laps, where he lost a few places. Halfway that second part of the race the balance returned and he resumed his charge. In the last lap he passed Sam Bird, he had been cruising in 8th position halfway the race. Yelmer finished in twelfth place. “It took some time to get familiar with the car again. A GP2 is something quite different from a Superleague Formula car. And one single free practice is not enough but I got the feeling back during the race. Maybe I can put on a nice show in the Sprint-race tomorrow”.
Davide Valsecci won the race and clinched the title, with still three races to go.
Results
1. Davide Valsecci (It) 34 laps in 1 hr 2 min. 05.146
2. Luca Filippi (It) at 2.792
3. Javier Villa (Sp) at 6.067
4. Giancomo Ricci (It) at 6.238
5. Charles Pic (Fra) at 13.026
6. Alvaro Parente (Por) at 17.777
12. Yelmer at 39.513
