Da Costa qualifies second in Spa

28 August 2010

António Félix da Costa took a front row start for Carlin this morning, in qualifying for the Belgian round of the GP3 season. The 18 year-old racer put in a strong performance around the drying Spa-Francorchamps circuit in only his second outing in a GP3 car. Team mate Josef Newgarden was also on the pace and amongst the front runners throughout the session, but was caught out by yellow flags and qualified 13th. Dean Smith will start race one this afternoon from the back of the grid after crashing early on in qualifying.

Following yesterday's wet practice session, this morning's 30 minute qualifying session was again wet forcing the drivers to start the session on wet tyres. Tomax and Racing Steps Foundation backed driver Dean Smith was caught out by the slippery conditions early on, crashing heavily at Les Combes which brought out the only red flag of the session.

As the track began to dry, it became clear that the quickest times would be set in the final minutes, with the drivers switching to slick tyres in the second half of the session. As the session entered the final stages, both Da Costa and Newgarden were on the pace and were fourth and fifth on the timing screens with two minutes to go. As the field of 30 drivers pushed hard in the final minutes, several took excursions off track, bringing out a flurry of yellow flags.
Newgarden was one driver who saw his session compromised heavily by the yellow flags and had qualified 13th at the chequered flag, while Da Costa put in an impressive performance to qualify second. Having crashed in the wet early on, Smith will start race one from 30th on the grid. The British racer will be one to watch as he fights his way back through the field this afternoon.

Speaking about his qualifying performance, Da Costa said, "After yesterday's practice session I felt confident about our pace, even though our place on the timing sheets might not have reflected that. Today was a tricky session, the track was quite damp to start with and I knew that it would the final laps that would decide qualifying so I was really careful at the start. Towards the end of the session there were so many yellow flags it was hard to get a lap in. I'm really happy to qualify second. Let's see what happens in the race; it was my race starts that let me down last time in Budapest, so I will be focusing on improving that this weekend."

Race one will take place at 17.20 local time this afternoon.