Warm Up: Mitch Evans – Pertamina Campos Racing “The climate is quite interesting; it can be the same as in England. It’s a track I’ve always really enjoyed. I won in it in GP3 Series and GP2 Series. It’s a pretty solid circuit and you have normally have a good crowd. From a driver’s point of view, it normally creates good racing and I can’t wait to go there. I’ve got good memories from Hockenheim in 2014.
“There are opportunities to overtake outside of the DRS Zones. It’s one of the circuits where you can be quite creative for overtaking, especially in the first and second sectors. As we all know, GP2 drivers can be creative when it comes to overtaking. In terms of racing, it’s one of the good tracks. “Normally, the degradation is quite high. But it will depend on the track temperature. In 2014, it was super-hot so it destroys the tyres but I don’t know how will it be this year. It’s one of those tracks where it’s reasonably hard on the tyres but it does depend on conditions as well.“It was a strange race when I won. I started fifteenth and did a different strategy from everyone else but won on pure pace. Hopefully we can qualify better this time but it was a really good race. And hopefully I can at least be on the podium. That’s we always aim for.”
The StakesOur busy month of July ends this weekend with the GP2 paddock setting up at Hockenheim for the seventh round of the season. With last week’s pole position and win in the Feature Race under his belt; Pierre Gasly is now the new Series leader. The Frenchman has been consistent since the start of the season and seems on a mission to fly to his first GP2 crown. But his main rival is none other than his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi. The rookie has had been very reliable and has had a strong GP2 season so far only failing to score points in the first two rounds. Since then, the PREMA Racing driver has pocketed two wins and he is frequently in the top 5. Both of them will also have to keep an eye on Raffaele Marciello. The Italian is the only driver to have scored points in eleven races out of twelve but has yet to win a race.Behind this consistent top three, we have the MP Motorsport’s Oliver Rowland who has finished on the podium and the Racing Engineering pair who are eager to repeat their top form from the past few rounds and be at the top of the standings. 27 points covers the top five from Gasly to Jordan King. Without forgetting our 2014 Hockenheim race winner Mitch Evans who is now seventh in the drivers’ standings and is ready to repeat his winning weekend from two years ago.Pirelli have selected Medium and Soft compounds for this event. It will be important to look after the tyres as there is lots of acceleration out of the slow corners. The track surface in Hockenheim is quite smooth which helps to limit wear and degradation but braking will be a key aspect. The tyres are subject to maximum deceleration.There will be one driver change this week as Rene Binder replaces Sergio Canamasas at car #18 for Carlin.
Season Stats3 PREMA Racing have now achieved three 1-2 finishes in a season. They equal ART Grand Prix who are the only other team to have matched this back in 2005.9 There have been 9 different race winners in the 2016 season so far (Nobuharu Matsushita, Sergey Sirotkin, Norman Nato, Jordan King, Alex Lynn, Mitch Evans, Artem Markelov, Antonio Giovinazzi, Pierre Gasly).3 Number of drivers who have achieved 3 front row start this season (Sirotkin, Nato and Gasly).42 Number of points between PREMA Racing and Racing Engineering in the teams’ standings.NoteworthyLast time, the GP2 Series raced in Hockenheim was in 2014. At that time, Mitch Evans (RUSSIAN TIME) won the Feature Race and Stefano Coletti (Racing Engineering) the Sprint Race.
In 2014, The best laptime in Qualifying was set by Jolyon Palmer (DAMS) in a 1:23.383.
There will be one driver change this week as Rene Binder moves to Carlin in car #18 to replace Sergio Canamasas.
After he won the Budapest Feature Race, Pierre Gasly is now leading the Series with 107 points, 11 points ahead of his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi.
Pierre Gasly is the second driver to win a race this season from pole position (the first one was Antonio Giovinazzi in Baku Feature Race).
The Feature Race will run for 38 laps (173.812 km) and the Sprint Race will run over 27 laps (123.498km).
