Pole position for Javier Villa!

Racing Engineering’s 17 year old Javier Villa impressed
during the two qualifying sessions of the second round of the Spanish Formula 3 Championship held at the circuit of Valencia. The young Spaniard will start the first of Sunday’s races from pole position and the second one from second position. Marcos Martinez Ucha, competing in the Spanish Formula 3 Cup, starts the races from fourth and third positions respectively.






Javier Villa, the young Spaniard from the Racing Engineering
outfit, demonstrated today why he is rated as one of Spain’s
biggest talents in motor racing. Javier will start Sunday’s first
race from pole position. For the second race, Javier could not
repeat this excellent result, but left all possibilities open for a
win by starting from 2nd position.
Ricardo Risatti on the other hand could not keep track with the
top of the field due to problems with his brakes, which will only
allow him to start the first race from 8th and the second race
from 7th position.
Filipe Albuquerque, the Red Bull backed driver, saw his
possibilities destroyed by a problem with the gasoline pump
during the 2nd qualifying session, whereas during the first
session he suffered from a not optimal set of tyres that caused
a lot of oversteer on the young Portugues’ car.
Racing Engineering’s only Dallara F300 participating with
Marcos Martinez Ucha in the Spanish Formula 3 Cup will start
from very promising positions tomorrow. Marcos finished the
first qualifying in 4th position and will start the second race
from an excellent 3rd position on the starting grid.
Javier Villa at the end of the day declared, “in the first session
everything was perfect. The good work my team made
allowed me to mark fast and consistent lap times, enough to
get me pole position. For the second session we tried some
changes on the set up, but that didn’t turn out the way we
expected. However, the second position in that session is
excellent and provides me with the possibility to win
tomorrow’s second race”.

After a not so perfect day, Ricardo Risatti said, “When I
started the first session on old tyres, my car felt really well.
After putting the new set of tyres, however, the lap times didn’t
improve and the car wasn’t perfect anymore. I additionally had
brake problems, which greatly affected my second session.
Today I couldn’t meet my goals”.

Filipe Albuquerque after both qualifying sessions announced,
“this wasn’t a positive day, but this is racing. We worked a lot
on the set up of the car and improved from the first to the
second session, but a problem with the gasoline pump forced
me to retire on the track after only marking one lap time with
the new set of tyres. This obviously kept me from fighting for a
good position on the starting grid”.

Marcos Martinez Ucha, after recording satisfying lap times in
the two session, said, “I am not so happy with the first session
where we had some problems with the set up. We overcame
these for the second session and my car was much better
allowing me to grab the third position at the starting grid”.

Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon, team principal, resumed the day,
”I am really happy with Javier and his first pole position. This
offers him the chance to win tomorrow. Concerning Ricardo
and Filipe I am not very content since both could not
demonstrate their capabilities. I believe in both of them and
am sure they will give their best tomorrow. I am very happy
about Marcos’ performance. He already did a great job in
Jarama with his second place, and given his starting positions
tomorrow, he should be able to make it on the podium again”.

Qualifying 1:
1. Javier VILLA Racing Engineering 1.30.139
2. Alvaro BARBA Campos Racing 1.30.202
3. Andy SOUCEK R. LLusía Racing 1.30.232
4. José M. P. AICART GTA Motor Competición 1.30.493
5. Dani MARTIN ECA Racing 1.30.617
6. Roldan RODRIGUEZ Campos Racing 1.30.640
7. Filipe ALBUQUERQUE Racing Engineering 1.30.697
8. Ricardo RISATTI Racing Engineering 1.31.068
9. Marco BARBA Escuela Profiltek Circuit 1.31.071
10.Manuel SAEZ MERINO ECA Racing 1.31.528
13.Marcos Martinez Ucha Racing Engineering 1.31.945

Qualifying 2:
1. Alvaro BARBA Campos Racing 1.30.476
2. Javier VILLA Racing Engineering 1.30.633
3. José M. P. AICART GTA Motor Competición 1.30.756
4. Andy SOUCEK R.LLusía Racing 1.30.859
5. Roldan RODRIGUEZ Campos Racing 1.31.189
6. Dani MARTIN ECA Racing 1.31.201
7. Ricardo RISATTI Racing Engineering 1.31.303
8. Manuel SAEZ MERINO ECA Racing 1.31.728
9. Juan M. POLAR IGI TEC 1.31.798
10.Marco BARBA Escuela Profiltek Circuit 1.31.853
11.Filipe ALBUQUERQUE Racing Engineering 1.31.968
12.Marcos MARTINEZ UCHA Racing Engineering 1.32.123