01-06-2009 - Nicola De Marco hails "significant" points at Valencia

Italian Nicola De Marco is hoping to carry on his improved form over the course of Valencia into the second round of the 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship at Brno.

Having missed the final official pre-season test at Silverstone, the 21-year-old struggled early on in Spain, and could only manage 18th in first qualifying. However, with the experience of new tyres under his belt and after consultation with test driver Steven Kane and his engineer, Nicola was able to alter his set up and find added confidence to take 4th in second qualifying.

"My good qualifying in the second session gave me a lot of faith," Nicola commented. "In the first session I had some problems that were derived from missing the Silverstone test - for instance I had never tried anything other than the base set-up, and had no experience of new tyres, so I struggled to get a good balance with the car. After that I spent some time with my engineer and Steven Kane, I was able to alter the car set up and was very happy to set the fourth fastest time."

Nicola also demonstrated good race pace, rising from 18th to 9th in Race One before taking a comfortable fifth in Race Two. "I was pleased with how the first race went - even though Valencia is a circuit that doesn't easily allow for overtaking, I managed to move up several places. Perhaps I could even have scored points, but I got stuck in a battle with Jack Clarke who defended his position really well.

"Then in the second race I started really well, but I was slowed a little by Andy Soucek in front who got a bad start and that allowed Philipp Eng to overtake. When the rain started falling I decided not to take too many risks and limit myself to consolidating fifth place, which was nonetheless a good result and allowed me to score some significant points."

Nicola ended the weekend as the fastest of the three Spanish F3 graduates in Formula Two, and admits he hopes to carry such form into the next round: "I can't wait for Brno; I don't know the circuit all that well but I like driving there and I hope I'll get good results.

"It will be important to do well there, especially as I will miss free practice and first qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps because of my exams. I'm very disappointed, because Spa is my favourite circuit and I won there last year in F3, so I'm sure I could do very well if I had the whole weekend. I just have to try my best at Brno, and with luck I think I can do very well."

The next round of the 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship takes place at Brno, Czech Republic, on 19-21 June, before the series heads to Spa Francorchamps on 26-28 June.
 

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