This weekend sees Round 10, the penultimate event of the 2016 GP2 Series, take place in Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit. With just two rounds left to run the Championship for both the Drivers and Teams is still wide open and with Racing Engineering lying second in the Team standings and their drivers, Jordan King and Norman Nato, in fifth and sixth positions respectively in the Drivers’ Championship the team will be looking to score as many points as possible this weekend. The last round of the Series, at Monza, saw Norman take a confident victory in Sunday’s race, his second of the year, and both he and Jordan, who has also won twice, will be looking for more victories.
The Sepang circuit is located close to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital city. The 5.43Km track features a number of different types of corner ranging from the sweeping Turns 5 and 6 to the hairpin at Turn 15. In addition, the long pit and back straights mean that setting up the aerodynamics of the Dallara chassis to deal with all these different elements is vital to a good lap time. The GP2 Series has raced at Sepang twice before, in 2012 and 2013, and the Racing Engineering team have been very competitive on both occasions, taking two third places in 2012 and winning the Saturday race in 2013.
Timetable:Practice: Thu 29 Sep 2016, 16:05 (GMT+8)Qualifying Session: Fri 30 Sep 2016, 15:55 (GMT+8)Race 1: Sat 01 Oct 2016, 11:50 (GMT+8)Race 2: Sun 02 Oct 2016, 11:20 (GMT+8)
1. The Sepang International circuit is located in Sepang, Malaysia, approximately 40km south of the capital Kuala Lumpur.2. The track was designed by Hermann Tilke and opened in 1999. It is considered as one of the most technical circuits in the world.
3. GP2 has raced in Sepang twice, in 2012 and 2013.
4. The weather conditions, with frequent storms, temperatures above 30º and more than 80% relative humidity, are very challenging for the drivers.
5. The circuit features 15 corners: 10 right-hand and 5 left-hand.
6. In Sepang the pit-lane is 425m long. It is one of the longest in the GP2 championship.
7. In 2013, Racing Engineering’s driver Fabio Leimer began the season by winning the first race in Sepang and ended up wining the championship.
8. Sepang is tough on tires because of its abrasive surface, hard braking and the diverse type of corners.
9. In Sepang, the Kuala Lumpur and Penang straights really stand out with 950m and 870m respectively, which are almost parallel and are joined by a tight corner of 35m in radius.
10. The first two corners are slow and critical: a very closed hairpin and then a blind downhill corner.Facts1. F1 top speed peaking at over 311 km/h down the pit straight just before the first chicane, whereas in GP2 the top speed goes up to 300 km/h.
2. Pole position in F1 was set in 2013 at 1:49.674 – Pole position in GP2 was set in 2013 at 1:44.280.
3. F1 drivers will change gear 57 times per lap against the 42 times a GP2 driver has to shift gear.
4. Race distance is no so different: F1 go around the circuit for 56 laps and GP2 do a total of 53 laps in two days- 31 laps in feature race and 22 in the sprint race.
