Antonio Giovinazzi continued his strong vein of form as he secured a second place and a fourth during last weekend’s GP2 Series round at Silverstone, with the Italian now second in the championship standings.
The Prema Racing driver was on course for third during Saturday’s Feature race around the British circuit, but overtook Oliver Rowland on the final lap to move into second and give his Italian team a second 1-2 finish of the season.
Giovinazzi was also strong in the closing stages of Sunday’s Sprint race, and was less than two-tenths of a second from another podium, being denied at the line by Rowland.
The Italian felt strong all weekend long after mastering the issues of tyre degradation that affected many drivers’ races during free practice, and ending each race as one of the quickest drivers on track.
“I discovered in free practice that I would have a great work to do, due to the degradation of the tyres on a quite abrasive tarmac,” said Giovinazzi. “This was the main theme which played in my head in the whole weekend.
“So, I was happy of the good performance of the car on prime tyres, after I pitted in Race 1 but, in the same time, I had to be careful to avoid low performance in the final laps.
“Just in the last laps of both races I was able to manage the performance during the duel with Rowland: I did a good overtake on him in Race 1, while in Race 2 I tried to recover a high gap of 2.4 by the English driver.
“This was not too simple, due to the previous duel for 6th place with Mitch Evans: this battle was quite hard and not too good for the tyres. But in this case I had to decide to risk a bit more, to avoid losing contact from the head of the pack.
“Finally, the typical Silverstone rain in Race 2 was too brief. It was useful to my recover and I finished close to my opponent, but still in 4th place. Oddly, Rowland is the new provisional leader and I am very close to him also in the standings. Also, Prema Racing is leading the standings for teams.”
