Daly puts up a fight in Valencia

26 June 2011

Conor Daly was the star of the show in round six of the 2011 GP3 Series today, with a spirited drive to seventh place in Valencia. The young American pushed hard from the outset to make the most of his 12th place grid slot, and finished just outside the points in his third European race event. Team mates Leonardo Cordeiro and Daniel Morad weren’t quite so happy with their races, after an incident at the start. Cordeiro managed to recover and cross the line 17th while Morad was forced to retire on lap one.

As opposed to yesterday’s chaotic start, all the cars made it round the first corner this morning, although the first lap was not without incident. While Daly had managed to move up to tenth place, Cordeiro and Morad made contact, putting Cordeiro into a spin and leaving Morad with race ending damage.

With Cordeiro now 23rd and Morad out of the race, Carlin’s only chance of points lay with Daly who was on a charge. The 18 year-old American passed Nick Yelloly on lap five for ninth place and had Adrian Quaife Hobbs in his sights next.

By lap seven, Daly was right with the front runners, in a chain of cars fighting for fourth place. The GP3 rookie kept pushing though, and a few laps later made a perfect over taking manoeuvre to pass race one winner Quaife-Hobbs for eighth.

Not satisfied with eighth, Daly began closing in on Saturday’s pole man Lewis Williamson. Providing all the entertainment of the race, Daly put in another perfect overtaking manoeuvre to pass Williamson for seventh with three laps to go, and was just one place away from the final points paying position.

With only two laps remaining Daly was closing in on Gabby Chaves for sixth. Just a few corners from the end of the race fourth placed Dean Smith was handed a drive through penalty, effectively elevating Daly to sixth. Without enough time for the team to tell Daly of his new position, Daly made a move on Chaves at the final corner for what he thought was sixth. Chaves defended though, and the two almost touched. In the melee, Williamson managed to get back through and at the chequered flag a few meters later Daly was seventh, just one place out of the points.

Cordeiro meanwhile had managed to fight back from 23rd on the first lap to cross the line 17th.

Reflecting on his eventful race, Daly said, “The car was really good the whole race. I had lots of pace and was able to work my way past people one by one. I felt like I made some good moves; I was able to brake really late which helped me. I didn’t realise I was in the points in the final few corners, and I saw a gap for what I thought was sixth and I just went for it. It’s a shame that it didn’t work out but we’ve shown today that we’ve got great pace and I know the points will come.”

Racing Director Trevor Carlin added, “Conor did a fantastic job today. It’s a pity that his efforts weren’t rewarded with a point, but he can still be extremely proud of his race. His numerous overtaking moves were perfect and he provided the highlights of the race.”