Bruno Senna was staying phlegmatic despite mechanical woes ruining his hopes recording anything better than a fifth place finish in the latest GP2 Series round at Magny-Cours.
Keen to protect the championship lead he established with victory at Monaco, Senna started the weekend in the right way by scoring two points for pole position around the French circuit.
The feature race began well too as Senna established an early lead, with only Giorgio Pantano and Romain Grosjean able to take up the pursuit. However, shortly before his pit-stop, Senna's iSport International car began experiencing clutch problems, an issue that the Brazilian was confident of keeping under control.
However, after losing the lead to Grosjean during the pit-stops, Senna's clutch eventually gave way completely whilst running in second place, forcing him into retirement.
“I think that was just plain bad luck,” he said. “I was pacing myself in the early stages, looking after the car and making sure I didn't work the tyres too hard. The car was handling really well and I thought we were in good shape.
“The clutch started to slip after about 12 laps, as I changed from fifth to sixth gear, so I began short-shifting and did everything I could not to put the system under too much strain.
“My lap times were still good, despite the problem, but shortly after my stop the clutch began slipping between fourth and fifth and then it simply packed up altogether.
“This should have been our race. Even with the problem I was sure I would be able to score a strong points finish, but it wasn't to be.”
Starting at the back of the grid for the sprint race, Senna got his break when a damp circuit forced those at the front to play safe on wet weather tyres, compared to those towards the rear who could gamble on slicks.
Duly making the risk pay off, Senna tip-toed through the first few laps before forging his way up the order on a drying circuit and getting as high as third. However, once again, Senna's hopes of a good result were scuppered when he suffered gear selection issues.
![Bruno Senna - iSport International [Pic credit: GP2 Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/456829.jpg)
