THIRD MEETING OF THE GP2 SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP

The ART Grand Prix team leaves the most glamorous circuit of the season with a podium in its pocket and immense satisfaction. On the 3.340km layout that runs through the twisty streets of the Principality of Monaco, a difficult qualifying session saw Nico Rosberg placing his Dallara in 7th place while teammate Alexandre Prémat ended up at the bottom end of the top ten.

If overtaking in Monaco is almost impossible, the two ART GP drivers soon proved that to win positions and move up the field is not impossible, thanks to being constantly on the attack, a perfect race strategy and a great job by mechanics during pit stops.

Nico and Alexandre quickly gained positions when the lights went out, and both were soon safely inside the top 8. Fast and at ease on the Riviera roller coaster, the two men were not satisfied with this and therefore continued their maximum attack for the podium, Alexandre preceded Nico at the end of his pit stop but alas, the Frenchman lost control of his single-seater equipped on cold tyres and went straight at Mirabeau, ending his race after the car stalled.

Nico continued to push in the final stages of the race, closing the gap to five seconds from the leaders, Carroll and Bruni to eventually secure his first podium of the season.

Frederic Vasseur (CEO):

We had some hard times during qualifying, but they were down to the circumstances and not the team’s potential. Nico had an excellent weekend, continuing the competitiveness he hasshown since the beginning of the season, which allowed him to finally collect the fruits of his work and talent. He climbed onto his first podium - the second for the ART GP team - and is from now 6th in the drivers rankings with 12 points, while ART has a total of 19 points. Alexandre’s race was very promising, but he made a mistake on cold tyres right after his pit stop. The overall result is however very positive: we healed our wounds and from now on are, I hope, ready to play for first place at each round.

Nico Rosberg:

We did a few mistakes in the qualifying session and ended up 7th but the car was better than that. I took a very good start but the traffic was bad so we made the decision to come in early and I had a good pitstop. I lost some time behind some backmarkers but then I pushed really hard to catch up to the leaders. I was caught up behind Scott who was slower than me, but it’s just impossible to pass here. When he came out of the pits behind me I looked up and saw my name in third on the board, I was like, ‘no way!’ I could have tried to pass Bruni at the end but it would have been stupid to try and lose everything in the last laps. I’m just happy to get my first podium here at home and with a fantastic car!

Alexandre Premat:

It was a rather good weekend all in all, even if we had some problems in the qualifying session, where we could not exploit the tyres at the best time, since I clocked my fastest lap on lap 6. I think that we had the potential to be 5th or 6th on the grid. In the race I had a good start, I won some positions and made my pit stop on lap 23. The team did a very good job and I went back on track in 3rd, with cold tyres. I went up Sainte Devote and the Casino, and thought that the tyres were warm enough, but I locked the two front wheels in Mirabeau, spun and stalled. I am disappointed but we are competitive and the team did a very good job, it is frustrating to miss out on points, but we have what it takes catch up next time.