Although neither of its drivers scored, and were involved in three car-damaging incidents, over the course of the two races in Monaco, Racing Engineering boss Alfonso d'Orleans Borbon still managed to find something good about the weekend.
Having been taken out of race one by an ambitious Sebastien Buemi, points leader Giorgio Pantano had another coming together in Saturday's sprint, this time his lowly grid position bringing him into contact with stand-in Marcello Puglisi at the seafront chicane. Javier Villa, meanwhile, kept his nose clean after punting Mike Conway out of third place in the feature to overcome a ten-place grid penalty and claim 13th on the road.
With both drivers starting out at the back of the grid, there was not much room for optimism within the Racing Engineering camp but, with Monaco having a reputation for incident and controversy, there was always luck to rely on. As it happened, however, fortune failed to shine on either driver.
Both cars managed to get through the melee at Ste Devote, but Pantano was soon struggling to find a way past Puglisi's Durango car and had pressure from Luca Filippi behind. Pantano eventually thought he saw a gap as the trio filed into the chicane for the eighth time but, while Puglisi failed to spot the Racing Engineering car on his left and crunched it against the barrier on the entrance to the chicane. Although the Durango car continued, Pantano was out on the spot with damage to the front suspension.
“I was running a good race and the car was performing well but, when I tried to overtake, my Italian friend pushed me against the wall outside the tunnel and everything ended there,” Pantano said, hoping that his slim points lead would hold up.
Villa, meanwhile, was up to 15th spot and, when the safety car withdrew after picking Alberto Valerio out of the barriers, picked another couple of places due to retirements ahead of him. The Spaniard, chastened after his Friday moment, was happy to see the chequered flag and bolstered by his pace.
![Giorgio Pantano - Racing Engineering [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/444348.jpg)
