The start of the European Season of the GP2 Series kicked off on Circuit de Catalunya last weekend. It was a difficult weekend for Hilmer Motorsport and the team couldn’t score points. Daniel Abt qualified in 14th for the feature race despite of a problem with the dampers on his car which only could be found and fixed on Saturday morning. With a risky strategy to do a late pit stop the team tried to bring his German driver to the front. It turned out that it would have been the right strategy because race winner Johnny Cecotto jr. was on the same strategy. Unfortunately, Abt was hit by Raffaele Marciello (Ferrari Junior driver) and had to bring his car back to the pits. But there was too much damage on his car and he had to retire. Before his retirement, Abt was in front of winner Cecotto jr. In the sprint race on Sunday he had to start from 23rd position because the grid for the second race results from the classification of the first race. Abt has proved that there is a great potential in the car and in himself and he could make up many positions. But a better result than 12th position wasn’t possible.

His team mate, the Argentinian Facu Regalia had to learn the hard way on Saturday for his inexperience. Two other cars were in trouble before the race start, which resulted in an abort of the race start and in the completion of another formation lap. In the hectic around him, Regalia had problems and stalled his engine on the starting grid while his competitors did another formation lap. He had to be pushed to the pit lane and to start from the pit exit. With the different delays, his engine overheated and enabled the safety mode just after the race start which resulted in the premature end of the race and the second last starting position for the race on Sunday. Due to the overheating problems with the engine, the aggregate had to be changed overnight which meant a nightshift until the early hours for the mechanics and engineers. In the race on Saturday, the young Argentinian set good lap times and finished the race in 17th position.

Franz Hilmer, Team Principal:
“We had high expectations and so we are very disappointed about the result in Barcelona.  

In the feature race on Saturday, Daniel Abt got off to a good start until he was hit by Ferrari Junior driver Raffaele Marciello. At that time, Daniel was in front of race winner Johnny Cecotto jr., who was on the same strategy. Without a doubt Daniel could have won the race on Saturday. But we were unlucky again and we missed the possible second podium finish after Bahrain. Due to the retirement Daniel had to start from the back of the grid on Sunday and it already seemed to be impossible to score points. Basically we and also Daniel are very happy with the car, and also Daniel’s pace is good all the time. The team and Daniel have to continue to work hard and then I am sure that we will have good results, podium finishes and maybe also some race wins. We don’t know if this will already happen in Monte Carlo because this is a very special race where a lot of things can happen and everything is possible. But maybe have a little bit of luck there which we didn’t have at the first two race events this year.”

Daniel Abt, Driver #11:
„We saw again that there are no holds barred in GP2 racing. The retirement in the feature race was bitter because a very good result was possible with our tyre strategy. We showed our potential by overtaking several cars in the sprint race when I climbed up from 23rd to 12th position. The car was fantastic in the race and it shows what could have been possible. We have to take the positive things with us and to get rid of the bad luck and finally score some points in Monaco.”

Facu Regalia, Driver #12:
“We didn’t have a good weekend in Barcelona. For the first time we were struggling too much in qualifying on Friday because we couldn’t find the right setup for it. Then we focused on the first race and it was looking not so bad. Unfortunately, I had technical problems on the car and I had to stop the car on track. My mechanics had to change the engine overnight and in the race on Sunday the car was quite good. I had a really good start and I could overtake some other cars. I was behind my team mate for some laps and I finished in 17th position. I would like to thank the team for their great and hard work. They were working until Sunday morning to have the car ready for the second race. Now we are focusing on the next round in Monaco and I hope that we can finally have a good weekend!”

Results GP2 Barcelona

Practice
#11 Daniel Abt       Position 7
#12 Facu Regalia    Position 21

Qualifying
#11 Daniel Abt       Position 14
#12 Facu Regalia    Position 21

Feature Race
#11 Daniel Abt       DNF
#12 Facu Regalia    DNF

Sprint Race
#11 Daniel Abt       Position 12
#12 Facu Regalia    Position 17

About Hilmer Motorsport
Hilmer Motorsport was established by Franz Hilmer in 2013 and participates in the GP2 Series and GP3 Series. After an impressive debut season with four race wins and seven podium finishes in the 2013 GP2 Series, the crew of Hilmer Motorsport concluded the season in an outstanding sixth position of the team championship. In 2014, Hilmer Motorsport is the official GP2 Partner of Sahara Force India and will compete in GP3 Series with three race cars in the colours of Sahara Force India as the Official GP3 Partner.