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This weekend the Hilmer Motorsport Team embarked on its third season in the GP2 Series. The team from Niederwinkling got underway in Barcelona with GP2 rookie Nick Yelloly (#24) and the Augsburg-born Johnny Cecotto jun. (#25) at the wheel. Both drivers got off to a good start to the weekend, putting in impressive performances in practice. Yelloly was held up on his quick laps and therefore could not improve on his previous times. During practice, Cecotto paid special attention to finding the best race setup for him. With about 43 laps, both drivers were among the busiest on the track. During qualifying Yelloly continued his impressive performances and qualified in 9th place for his first GP2 race. Cecotto had a DRS problem on his first flying-lap. Due to the faulty DRS and electronics problems he was unable to complete any more fast laps and ended up occupying 21st position.
Unfortunately the race on Saturday did not play out as hoped for either Hilmer Motorsport driver. Yelloly was forced to head for the pits after just a few laps following a collision with Julian Leal, and withdrew from the race prematurely due to a damaged wishbone. Cecotto had problems with his tyres and crossed the line in 21st place. Yelloly was then punished for his collision during Saturday’s race by having to start Sunday’s race from the pit lane. He set off on an unbelievable catch-up race and easily matched the pace of the frontrunners. Yelloly showed off some wonderful overtaking manoeuvres and fought his way up to 14th place. Cecotto was bothered by brake problems, and the Venezuelan had to give up the race at the half-way stage.
Franz Hilmer, Team Boss: “I’m rather satisfied with our Barcelona race-weekend. With Nick Yelloly and Johnny Cecotto our team had two strong drivers, who could have brought us back to the front of the pack following a somewhat average last year. Unfortunately Nick and Johnny both had a bit of bad luck, which is why they couldn’t drive into the top-spots in the way we had hoped. Nevertheless I’m more than satisfied with what both of them have achieved. Nick drove to a Top-10 spot in his first GP2 qualifying and showed he has talent to burn during the race on Sunday. It’s therefore more gratifying to me than surprising that he’s being allowed to do a day of testing with our Formula 1 partner Sahara Force India on Wednesday. Johnny is one of the most experienced drivers in GP2 and his feedback has really helped us to improve the car in Barcelona. Unfortunately he had a problem with his DRS in qualifying and as a consequence lost too much time lap on lap, so he had to start from a long way back and had almost no chance of driving to a well-placed finish. Despite everything we showed in Barcelona that Hilmer Motorsport is back competing in the Top 10, and that our cars are fast. I hope that we can carry on our upward trend in Monaco and that both our cars will finish in the points.”
Nick Yelloly, Driver #24: “Considering that this was my first race-weekend in GP2, I’m very happy. Although we couldn’t bring in the result we’d hoped for, we put in a strong performance in any case. It began very promisingly when we went straight into the Top 10 during practice for qualifying. The first race went rather disappointingly, but we were able to make up for it in the second race when we battled up to 14th place from the very back of the grid. The lap times were very fast and we were able to keep pace very well with the frontrunners. I’d like to thank to the team for their work, and for allowing me to sit behind the wheel of a GP2 car in Barcelona.”
Johnny Cecotto jun., Driver #25: “I was greatly looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of a GP2 car in Barcelona. The car felt great, but unfortunately technical problems made life difficult for us, otherwise we would have been driving up at the front. I’d like to thank the team for giving me the chance to be here in Barcelona.”