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Successful GP2 Shakedown for Team AirAsia

Team AirAsia successfully completed its maiden GP2 shakedown today at Paul Ricard, with driver Johnny Cecotto running for 30 laps with a best time of 1.15.627. The team now leaves the French circuit to prepare for next year feeling very optimistic about the season ahead.

Riad Asmat, Team AirAsia Team Principal: “It is a very proud day for everyone associated with Team AirAsia to see our new car complete 30 laps and for the whole day to have run so smoothly. I would like to thank Johnny for doing a very professional job today and thank everyone in the team for all their hard work in helping us reach this point today, as well as thanking Dallara, Renault, and Pirelli for helping us make our GP2 dream come true. This is the start of another exciting chapter for Malaysian, UK and global motorsport and we hope to inspire another generation of talent around the world to join us as we set out to achieve our goals in the 2011 GP2 season.”

Phill Spencer, Team AirAsia Team Manager: “Today was a successful shakedown for us. Obviously we had one or two of the normal teething problems but the team worked well to rectify that and minimise lost track time. We ran through a number of tests, making the most of the limited number of spares that we have at the moment and have generated some useful data from all the running we did, especially on high fuel. All in all we are very happy with today’s progress.”

Humphrey Corbett, Team AirAsia Chief Engineer: “For me it was a very good session today. The shakedown is supposed to be exactly that – a chance to shake down the car and make sure everything runs properly and that is what we have achieved today. I am also pleased with how we looked out there today. We are still a team that has had very limited time to put itself together and we presented ourselves very professionally indeed. I also want to thank Johnny for his work today. He did everything that was required of him and made no mistakes which is just what we needed today.”

© RIF