Following a torrid middle part of the campaign when everything that could go wrong seemingly did, Crash.net columnist Nicolas Lapierre got his GP2 season back on-track with a sublime victory at Spa last time out, around the most challenging circuit of them all. Here the Frenchman tells us how it felt to climb back onto the top step of the rostrum once more…
Magny-Cours back at the start of July was a very important race for us. We had a good set-up and the car was feeling ok. In the first race we were running third but then had a bad pit-stop, which made it difficult for us to get anything back from there and in the end we finished eighth.
I took the lead at the start of the Sunday race and everything was under control; I was just cruising and saving the tyres. I led for most of the race but then lost the brakes very close to the end. When I came into the hairpin there were no brakes at all – I just went straight on and that was it.
Obviously that was a very big disappointment for me, especially coming in front of my home crowd like that. After the difficult start we had to the season it would have been good for us to get at least one win there, but there was nothing we could really do.
Silverstone a week later I think was the worst point of the year for me. I had a very big shunt there in the first race. Coming into the first corner the front left suspension broke and I just went straight into the wall; I think the impact speed was about 200km/h, so pretty fast! It was certainly a big one. I didn’t really have any time to think – as soon as I turned I went into the wall, and that was the end of it.
I was quite happy because I didn’t do any damage to myself which was the most important thing, but still it was one of the biggest crashes I’ve ever had and afterwards I felt a little dizzy. Unfortunately we couldn’t repair the car in time for the race on the Sunday so that was difficult as well, because it’s never easy having to watch the other drivers race.
