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MAGAZINE02/2012

VIRTUOSI AND MLR71: SUCCESSFUL NEWCOMERS

STUNNING TV FIGURES FOR AUTO GP

TWO LAST LAP BATTLES

CROWN CAMPANA

AND VAN DER DRIFT

AS THE LATEST

AUTO GP WINNERS

MOROCCANTHRILLER

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RACE REPORT - BRNO

Round 5Sergio Campana was the fourth differentwinner of the Auto GP 2012 season. TheItalian F3 Champion took an amazing successcrossing the line with an advantage of just two

tenths on championship leader Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, after a glowing-hot fight in the last fivelaps of the Race.The duel for the win was the last act of anaction-packed Race 1 that proved to beeventful right from the start: poleman SergeySirotkin nearly stalled when the lights went offand dropped to P9, while Pl Varhaug clincheda perfect start and took the lead ahead ofCampana, Quaife-Hobbs, Giancarlo Serenelli,Chris Van Der Drift, Facu Regalia and Danielde Jong.Despite some big pressure from Campana in

the first few laps, Varhaug held the lead quitecomfortably ahead of the MLR71 driver, whileQuaife-Hobbs already seemed to struggle withtyres and had to defend his 3rd place by somewell placed attacks by Serenelli.On lap 4 the Briton stopped to change tyreswith an early pit-stop strategy, followed by Vander Drift, Victor Guerin and Max Snegirev.Behind the leaders, the very first laps also sawsome action: after his bad start Sirotkin gavehis best to recover and went past Ricci on thefirst lap, then doing the same with de Jong onelap later; in the meantime Regalia was puttingpressure on Van der Drift for fifth place but on

lap 3 the Argentinian driver of Campos Racingspun at the second chicane and went into the

wall, luckily with damages for the car alone.At half race Varhaug started stretching his leadon Campana, who stopped for his mandatorytyre change on lap 10. Varhaug did the sameat the end of lap 12, and that was a key

moment of the race: the Norwegian, whoseemed headed for an easy win, stalled hisVirtuosi UK car at the restart and lost a lot oftime, exiting the pits in third place 10 adriftfrom Quaife-Hobbs.So the fight for the win became a matterbetween Campana and the talented Briton ofSuperNova: Sergio had just a 1 gap on

Adrian after the pit-stop and managed tocontrol the situation until 3 laps to go, whenthe grip of his rear tyres really started fading.Quaife-Hobbs tried to make the most of hisrivals traction struggles, but Campana usedthe layout of the Moulay El Hassan circuit andthe Overboost he had left in the best possibleway, boasting a stunning defensive drive. Thetwo went side by side many times butCampana managed to keep the inside line atevery chicane and eventually crossed the linefirst, giving newcomer MLR71 their first win inthe Championship. A disappointed Varhaugclosed the race in third place followed by Vander Drift, with Ricci 5th ahead of Sirotkin. DeJong was 7th, while Antonio Spavone took P8and hence took pole on Race 2s reversedgrid.It was really hard - said Campana - because in

the last few laps my rear tyres were reallygone. I had wheelspin everywhere, even on the

straight, and so keeping Adrian at bay wasreally difficult. He came alongside me morethan once, but I was determined not to let himthrough and thats what I did.

Round 6Chris Van der Drift was the second king ofthe Marrakech Auto GP weekend after winningRace 2 with a stunning performance. In aseason that already saw 5 different winners in6 rounds, the Kiwi driver bagged the firstsuccess for him and MP Motorsport thanks toboth a masterful drive and a very good job byhis pit-wall staff.

At the beginning of the race, tough, it wasSergey Sirotkin who took the lead with anamazing start that allowed him to go past deJong and then pass team-mate AntonioSpavone on the outside of Turn 1. TheRussian driver of Euronova started pushing ashard as he could and at the end of lap 2 hisgap on the followers was already 4 wide.Behind those two the start was action packed,with de Jong getting off the line slowly andbeing overtaken by Van der Drift for P3. TheDutchman of MP Motorsport managed to gethis position back with a great move at the thirdchicane, but immediately after he locked-up hisfront wheels at the hairpin and crashed intoSpavones rear, bringing the race of both to anearly end.Lap 4 saw the first pit-stops from Varhaug,

Quaife-Hobbs and Serenelli, with Campanaand Ricci coming in for their tyre change one

BREATH-TAKERS

RACE REPORT - MARRAKECH

The startof Race 2

TWO LAST LAP

BATTLES CROWN CAMPANAAND VAN DER DRIFT IN MOROCCO

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WHOS THE WINNERROUND 51 Sergio CAMPANA MLR 71 19 laps in 29:34.1992 Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS Supernova International +0.186

3 Pal VARHAUG Virtuosi UK +5.9514 Chris VAN DER DRIFT Manor MP Motorsport +36.6775 Giacomo RICCI Zele Racing +38.9026 Sergey SIROTKIN Euronova Racing +40.1697 Daniel DE JONG Manor MP Motorsport +59.2078 Antonio SPAVONE Euronova Racing +59.3249 Yann CUNHA Ombra Racing +1:07.76710 Francesco DRACONE Virtuosi UK +1:08.838

ROUND 61 Chris VAN DER DRIFT Manor MP Motorsport 19 laps in 29:10.8232 Sergey SIROTKIN Euronova Racing +0.6513 Giacomo RICCI Zele Racing +19.9434 Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS Supernova International +20.5975 Victor GUERIN Supernova International +27.791

6 Yann CUNHA Ombra Racing +39.7747 Pal VARHAUG Virtuosi UK +44.5528 Francesco DRACONE Virtuosi UK +59.7339 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Campos Racing +59.93210 Facu REGALIA Campos Racing +1:06.262

lap later. Campana exited the pits right aheadof Varhaug and the Norwegian driver ofVirtuosi UK outbraked him on the outside ofTurn 1 to take fourth, with Quaife-Hobbs alsoclosing the gap on the Race 1 Winner. In a

very good moment of his race, Varhaug thenstarted catching Ricci, and passed his rival forthird place at the last chicane with a boldoutside move on lap 8.On lap 11 the pack catched Michele La Rosa,who still had to pit: Varhaug passed him at thelast chicane, followed by Ricci at the hairpin.Campana tried a late braking to enter thesame gap but his team-mate didnt understandhis intentions and closed the door, ending in acrash that took both MLR71 cars out of therace.In the meantime at the front the fight for the

win was hotter than ever: Sirotkin pitted on lap12 when he had a 48 lead on Van der Drift,

while the kiwi driver made the most of his newtyres to stay out on track as long as he could:in doing so, the MP Motorsport driver pulled asequence of very fast laps on the 129 pacethat allowed him to stretch his lead on Sergeyto 27 before lap 16, a gap that was enoughto keep the lead when he finally entered thepits for his mandatory tyre change. In the verylast lap Sirotkin got really close but wasnt inthe condition to try a move, and so the paircrossed the line with no changes in the order.Behind them the duel for third position was aclose one as well, with Varhaug, Ricci andQuaife-Hobbs packed in less than 1. TheItalian tried to pass Varhaug on lap 18, but hehad to back-off and Quaife-Hobbs made themost of it with a good outside move at Turn 3.The Briton of SuperNova started making a lot

of pressure on Pl and at the last chicane ofthe last lap he eventually got on the inside,

trying to get third place. They both braked aslate as possible but their manoeuver endedwith a chicane cut for Varhaug and a bad exitfrom the corner for Quaife-Hobbs, who wasthen passed by Ricci. Varhaug crossed theline in third place ahead of Ricci and Quaife-Hobbs, but after the race he was handed a25 penaly for cutting the chicane, hencebeing demoted to P7. So Ricci got the lastpodium spot, ahead of Quaife-Hobbs andGuerin.I was behind when Sirotkin pitted Van derDrift said - so I knew that to make ourstrategy work I had to push hard. I couldntsee Sergey but I did knew that my laptimeswere good and I was consistent, so at somepoint I felt that coming out of the pits in thelead was a possibility. The only question mark

was the pit-stop but the guys were reallyquick, so it was fine.

Campana and Quaife-Hobbscongratulate each other aftera stunning battle

Varhaug losta win at thepit-stop

CLASSIFICATION

Drivers Standings1. Quaife-Hobbs 105; 2. Sirotkin 76; Var-haug 75; 4. Van der Drift 69; 5. De Jong43; 6. Campana 39; 7. Regalia 36; 8.Ricci 30; 9. Snegirev 22; 10. Spavone18; 11. Guerin 16; 12. Cunha 8; 13.Serenelli 5; 13. Fong e Dracone 4; 15.Cipriani 3; 16. Pentus 2.

Under 21 Standings1. Quaife-Hobbs 120; 2. Sirotkin 98; 3.Varhaug 85; 4. Regalia 51; 5. De Jong49; 6. Spavone 42; 7. Guerin 36; 8. Cun-ha 24; 9. Beretta 9.

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MIXED NEWS

As it does from 2010, its maidenyear, Auto GP puts a prize moneyup for grabs at each andevery event. After the Sunday race thepoints of Race 1 and Race 2 get

summed up (together with the extrapoints for pole position and the fastestlaps of both races) and an overallweekend classification is drew.Then, prize money is awardedto the top three drivers of theclassification: for 2012, 35.000 eurosare up for grabs at each event,allocated as follows:

1st: 20.000 euros

2nd: 10.000 euros

3rd: 5.000 euros

Three events into the championship sixdrivers already had their share of prizemoney, for a total of 105.000 eurosawarded up to now.Adrian Quaife-Hobbs is the chip leader,

with 40.000 euros already in hispocket: twice a winner in 2012 so far,the briton got a second and a fourthplace in Marrakech and this allowedhim to take second place in theweekend classification, so bagginganother 10.000 euros.Quaife-Hobbs' weekend was a goodone, but Chris Van der Drift had aneven better one: with his win in Race 2and the 4th place in Race 1 the kiwidriver of MP Motorsport got more

points than anyone else in Morocco,

hence getting 20.000 euros that add tothe 5.000 he already won in Monza.Sergio Campana is the latest newentry of this standings: his amazing winin Race 1 was worth 25 points that

were enough to secure 3rd place in theweekend classification, even if hisRace 2 was a DNF because of acontact with team-mate La Rosa.Campana got 5.000 euros, and liesnow behing Varhaugand Sirotkin in theprize money order.

P R IZ E M O N E Y

Quaife-Hobbsthunders throughthe streetsof Marrakech

1. Quaife-Hobbs 40.000 euros

2. Van der Drift 25.000 euro

3. Varhaug and Sirotkin 15.000 euros

5. Campana and de Jong 5.000 euros

QUAIFE-HOBBSIS THE CHIP LEADER

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Auto GP keeps going from strength tostrength even when it comes to TVfigures. The Series, which averaged anaudience of nearly 3 million viewersper race in 2011 in Europe alone,managed to do even better in the firstrounds of the 2012 campaign. Boththe Valencia and Marrakech eventswere followed on Eurosport andEurosport 2 by more than 3.500.000viewers, a 25% improvement

compared to the 2007 average. Its aremarkable achievement, especiallyconsidering that this data is againreferred to European territory alone,not including all the Countries reachedby Eurosport in the Asia/Pacific areaand the ones reached by individualagreements with national and pan-national broadcasters in the North andSouth American area.Besides reaching huge crowds on TV,Auto GP is ready to do the same ontrack: next weekend the Championshipwill race in Hungaroring, a track thatlast year did set an attendance recordwith 75.000 people gathering on thegrandstands throughout the weekend.

SUPERNOVA LE ADS, MANOR MP ON T H E H UNT

1. SuperNova International 121

2. Manor MP Motorsport 112

3. Euronova Racing 94

4. Virtuosi UK 80

5. Campos Racing 60

6. MLR71 39

7. Zele Racing 308. Ombra Racing 17

GROWING TVAUDIENCE FOR AUTO GP

After the first three rounds of the Series, the battle for the teams' title is hotter thanever. SuperNova International leads the way with 121 points, but Manor MP Motor-

sport is just 9 points adrift. The dutch team is holding 2nd place thanks to some veryconsistent perfomances by both his drivers: with two 4th places and 1 podium finishfor de Jong and one win, one podium finish and one 4th place with Van der Drift, theteam has been bagging good points at each round.At SuperNova International, anyway, the team is confident that in the next roundsthey will be able to stretch the gap: up to now the british team has relied mainly onChampionship leader Adrian Quaife-Hobbs to increase their points tally, while VictorGuerin still has to turn his great potential into steady points finishes. The Braziliantalent has showed a very good pace in all the meetings, but a mix of bad luck andmistakes prevented him from making the most of it. SuperNova International knowsthat when Guerin's great performances will be turned into points, they will have agood resource to take a clear edge in the battle for the title.They will have to be careful anyway, because other teams may have something tosay: Euronova Racing is third in the standings only 17 points far, while Virtuosi UK is

in fourth place with 80 points: they both have what it takes to fight back, so preparefor a very exciting second half of the season!

Daniel de Jong

T E A M S T A N D IN G S

Crowded autograph

session in Morocco

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Greetings

fromMarrakech YannCunha

Facu Regalia

Bumpy shortcutfor Dracone

SergioCampana

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MLR71 team matesCampana and La Rosa

The start of Race 2

Sergey

Sirotkin

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INTERVIEW

VAN

A MUCW

ith his Race 2 success inMarrakech, Chris van der Driftended a 21-month-long streak

without a win. A widely recognized talent, thekiwi driver had to face tough times since hishuge Brands Hatch crash in 2010 and thisalso explains why his win in Marrakech washailed by big smiles throughout the whole

Auto GP paddock, with everybody seeing itas a deserved reward after a very unluckyperiod.

It feels the same for me - Chris said - it wasreally a much awaited moment. I knew that Ialways had the speed to do it, but whenyoure not racing regularly you dont havemany chances to show that and even when ithappens youre a bit rusty, so you dont getresults that in a normal situation would havebeen easily within your reach. This is why

getting this chance to compete in Auto GPwith Manor MP Motorsport was soimportant for me, I cant thank them enoughfor that.

The Brands Hatch crash in 2010

forced you to a lengthy stop in order

to recover from the injuries. How

much of a setback has it been for

your career?

A big one. The broken bones, bumps andbruises were just one bad side of it. Theother one is that it took away momentumfrom my career, as the timing was also reallybad. I had just decided to go ahead without amanager when the crash came. So I had torestart everything on my own, and it was anhard task. Finding a drive for the whole 2011season wasnt possible, and racing when youdont know if you will still have a seat thefollowing weekend is never easy.

Lets focus on the present: your fight

with Sirotkin in Race 2 was amazing,you couldnt see each other but both

Pure Joyon the podium

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had to push as hard as possible

to make the strategy work. How

does winning such a race feels?

Winning after such a close fight alwaysfeels great. It wasnt an easy race,especially the first part: I had a late-pit-stop strategy and so I knew that I had towatch after my tyres. Thats why in the

first few laps I was conservative, maybeeven a bit too much. Anyway at somepoint I realized that if I wanted to win therace I couldnt wait anymore, and that thesoft compound seemed very consistent.So I started pushing as hard as I could,and the laptimes got better and better. Ithink that the key moments were my lapswhen Sirotkin pitted and then my own inand out laps. Theres where I made thegap.

From the start of the season youalready won 25.000 euros of

Prize Money, thats also a good

way of saying thanks to your

team

Manor MP Motorsport are putting a lotof trust in me, so having the chance togive them something in return is reallywelcome. They have a very young driveron one car, so they are relying on my

experience to get a feedback on setupand development work, and Im doing mybest so that we can improve together. Ihave to say that working with them is areal pleasure, theres always a goodmood inside the team, everybody is verypositive.Also with Daniel, my team-mate, we getalong really well with each other. Imdoing a bit of coaching with him and Ihave to say that he has a hugepotential for such a young age.

Compared to 2011 he already improveda lot, hes a completely different driver

and theres much more to come.

Next race will be in Hungaroring,

a track you know very well. What

do you expect?

I expect a very good weekend. InMarrakech we managed a big stepforward with the base setup of the car,

something that we should be able tocarry to Budapest even if the circuits arevery different. I like the track, there is abit of everything, slow and quick corners,its a very technical layout. Basically youare going from corner to corner, so youwill go nowhere if the car isnt in goodshape. At the same time, the driver mustalso be very focused because losing acouple of tenths here and there is veryeasy. Its a track where everything mustbe perfect or nearly so to get a podium

result, and Im confident that we canachieve that.

THE KIWI COMMENTS HIS FIRST SUCCESS

AFTER THE 2010 BRANDS-HATCH CRASHDER DRIFT:

H AWAITED WIN

Some aggressivedriving...

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INTERVIEW

Auto GP this year welcomed twonew teams: Virtuosi UK andMLR71 are brand new outfits,

created with the sole purpose of racingin the Series. Despite being involved inan hard scenario both teams werecompetitive straight out of the box andalready clinched a win. Here is howthey did that in the words of the teamprincipals, Andy Roche andMichele La Rosa:

Why did you choose Auto GP?AR: Because the lease formulaproposed by Auto GP makes it thebest choice to start a new team. Itsvery cost effective, and thats whatyou want nowadays. Furthermore, thechampionship is going from strength tostrength, so being involved seemedthe right thing to do. Last but not least,I know Enzo Coloni from a very longtime and our relationship is really good,that also helped in the decision.

MLR: When in 2011 I decided totake part in the Auto GP finale inMugello, I did it because it was theonly Series that allowed me to race onstunning machinery with an affordablebudget. Well, its more or less thesame as a team manager: for 2012 myfirst idea was to drive in the Series, Iwas speaking with Ombra about that,but then a business partner of minecame with the idea of setting up ateam and I realized that the timing wasright, so I went for it.

What does it take to build ateam that can win fromscratch?AR: You need a strong andmotivated group of people around you.Im coming from a long GP2experience, so I already had a clearidea of the people I wanted in theteam. Then I added a couple ofengineers that won races and

championships in the past Auto GP

seasons, to have somebody with agood experience on the car, and thatwas it. People know me, so they knowthey can trust me when I speak abouta top-notch project.

MLR: You need to understand thatthe first year will be very hard, and thatall your time, even the spare one, willgo into that project. You need to forgetfriends, family, everything else for oneyear, because setting up a new team isincredibly time consuming.Apart from this, you obviously need towork with the right people. Most of myteam members come from very longF3000 and Le Mans experiences, butfrom Marrakech I added a couple ofguys with F1 and GP2 experience. AndI see that the team is evolving in theright direction.

What are your aims for 2013?AR: Winning the drivers and teams

championship, nothing less. We are

WINNING NEWCOM

BOTH VIRTUOSI UK AND MLR71 ARE NEWBORN

THAT ALREADY CLINCHED A WIN: HERE IS HOW THEY DID IT

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competitive now, we will be evenbetter with one year of Auto GPactivity behind our back. We are veryserious about our aims, and we arealready planning the first steps of ournext seasons. We have already beenapproached by drivers who want totest the car, and we are scheduling thefirst private sessions for November,when the cars will be back fromUSA.

MLR: We want to grow as a team,becoming one of the well establishedoutfits of the Series. Then I would liketo field a third car. You know, I like to

race, I enjoy myself but I know that Imnot competitive, at least for now. So, ifI want my team to race with two quickdrivers I have to line-up a third car. Imalready in talks for next seasons, so Ihope it wont be too difficult.

You both chose young driversthat still had to prove theirtalent on powerful machineryand it worked well. Do you feelthat a bet is won?

AR: I was sure about Varhaugstalent. Hes been a winner on each carhe has ever driven apart from GP2,and thats only because he went theremaybe a bit too early. With Auto GPhe was immediately quick, he knowshow to give the engineers a goodfeedback about what the car is doing,so the package is really competitive.You know, after winning in Auto GPGrosjean went back to GP2 and wonthe championship, I hope that Pl cando the same.

MLR: It was no bet at all: In the pre-season test in Magione we tried manydrivers, and Sergio was quickest by acouple of tenths, a lot on such a shorttrack. He was even quicker thandrivers with GP2 experience, and hehad never seen the car before. So Iwas impressed, and I decided to gethim as the quick driver in the team. Itsalso good for my driving, you learnquicker if your teacher is one of the

best around.

ERS

FrancescoDracone

MicheleLa Rosa

Campanawas quick fromscratchin Monza

te brakingr Varhaug

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CALENDAR 2012

01&02 13-15 March Monza, Italy

03&04 1-4 April Valencia, Spain

05&06 14-15 April Marrakech, Morocco

07&08 5-6 May Budapest, Hungary

09&10 2-3 June Portimao, Portugal

11&12 21-22 July Curitiba, Brazil

13&14 22-23September Sonoma, United States

NEXT STOP:BUDAPESTFew people know that Hungaroring

had a very important role in thehistory of Formula One. The

Hungarian GP was indeed the first

Grand Prix to be held behind the

Iron Curtain, in 1986. To make this

possible, the organizers had to face

a huge task, building the track and

its premises in just a few months:

the building works started in

October, with the

race to be held in March.

Despite this, they met all therequirements and managed to create

a very varied layout, that is still

considered one of the most

technical in the whole F1

calendar. Besides this, it's also

physically very challenging, both forthe drivers' neck, with high G forces

in long corners, and for the huge

work on the steering wheel it

requires. So, Auto GP drivers will

have to focus a lot on training in

order to be ready to make the most

of their cars.

Lap distance: 3.975 km

Right turns: 10

Left turns: 6Location: 20 kms north-east

of Budapest city centre

Official website:

http://www.hungaroring.hu/

FOLLOW US ON THE WEB

Join the AutoGP community on the web. To keep you posted with all the news from thechampionship we daily update our website www.autogp.org, but we also give you thechance to take a sneak peek in the backstage of the championship thanks to out facebookpage www.facebook.com/AutoGP and our Twitter account https://twitter.com/#!/Auto_GPOur facebook page has already more than 3.000 fans! Want to discuss with them aboutthe championship? You just have to join!