Luca Filippi has spoken of his relief after scoring his first points of the season in the latest GP2 Series race at Magny-Cours, the Italian scoring a strong third place in the sprint race.
Filippi, who entered the season as one of the title favourites with ART Grand Prix, has had a dismal start to the year, scoring no points in the first six races as he struggled to get to grips with the new chassis.
However, after a successful mid-season test at Paul Ricard, Filippi was confident that could be translated into equally good form at Magny-Cours. Those hopes were quickly dashed in the first race when he could only qualify 11th and finish in tenth place as he once again failed to dial in the right set-up.
With rain arriving for the sprint race though, Filippi seized his opportunity to make an impression in unpredictable circumstances to battle his way up the order and eventually cross the line an important third.
A crucial result given his position in the team that won the 2005 and 2006 GP2 titles, Filippi was delighted to break his hoodoo, even if he concedes that he is still not quite up to speed in normal circumstances.
“It's important for me and for the team for the motivation,” he said. “To keep believing in what we do: this is important, but still we need to make some pure performance for qualifying and race one, because we are still a bit too slow on pure performance.”
A good boost for the team after a difficult weekend that saw Grosjean fail to score, Filippi is now hoping he can use this as a foundation for mounting a more concerted challenge on the leading positions.
“I really wanted this. I came here with a lot of confidence to make a great result after the test in Paul Ricard, but I was a bit upset yesterday after the race because the pace we had wasn't fast and we weren't strong enough.
“But going home with a trophy is good, and the feeling I had on the podium I had almost forgotten about: it is good so I want to feel it again as soon as possible, and many times.”
![Luca Filippi - ART Grand Prix [pic credit: GP2 Series Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/459161.jpg)
