Esteban Gutierrez

Nurburg, Germany - After Mexican driver Esteban Gutierrez was penalized due to an incident during the pit stop, he came back to gain a few positions and eventually finish 13th during the first race of the weekend at the Nurburgring circuit.

Gutierrez started from eighth but lost a couple spots at the start. Later on, while leaving the pits after his pit stop, his car and Julian Leal’s touched and Esteban was penalized.

Esteban Gutierrez
Lotus ART Team / Car # 6 / Telmex / Multigama / Fastenal / Vector Casa de Bolsa / Interproteccion / DeAcero / Total Health Nutrients / Alpinestars / Bell Helmets

“I struggled to find grip and reaching tire temperature during the first laps. I wanted to be conservative because a contact at the start will ruin your race. Then there was a safety car period and after that we made our pit stop, which was very good.

“The problem was that, according to the rules, the indication I was given to exit the pits was a little risky and for that I was penalized, which greatly affected my race; I lost many positions and in the end I was only able to reach 13th”, explained the driver.

This is not the result Esteban and team Lotus ART expected, however they are in good spirit to do a better job in the second race, which will take place this Sunday.

“Obviously it is a shame that we were penalized because our pace was good, nevertheless we are motivated because I enjoyed the race and overtook many cars which is positive for my confidence and adaptation, even though the result is not what we expected.

“We have to keep working hard and make a clean and smart race tomorrow. To finish the races and to progress step by step is the most important thing and we are going to be little more aggressive about the car setup. We were looking for a result and now there is nothing we can do about it, we made a mistake and we must learn from the experience so it won’t happen again”, he remarked.

About the incident during the pit stop, Esteban said they have to learn from this kind of mistakes to avoid them in the future and be able to continue his progress on his first season in the F1 feeder series.

“The team didn’t say much actually. They have done a great job because we have progressed with the car and my adaptation to it. They are happy and motivated. They even apologized for the error but such things happen in racing and you have to learn from them; they are sensitive situations but you have to keep moving on.

“This is no reason to lose motivation and stop pursuing our goal. On the contrary, it is a thing that we have to analyze to be even better”, he concluded.

19 year old driver finished the race in 13th place with a time of 1:02:20.260. The race was dominated by Coloni’s Luca Filippi (1:01:06.975), runner up was Charles Pic (1:01:12.533) and third came Romain Grosjean (1:01:13.852).

Esteban will start tomorrow’s race from 12th on the grid, after Fabio Leimer –who had finished 9th – was penalized and will have to start from the bottom of the grid.

TIMETABLE:

SUNDAY, JUL. 24th
Race 2 - (45 mins)
 03h35 (CT Mexico)
 09h35 (UTC/GMT +0 hrs, London)
 10h35 (CEST Nurburg)

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For more information about Esteban Gutierrez, the Lotus ART Team, the GP2 Series, or his sponsors Multigama, Telmex, Fastenal, Vector Casa de Bolsa, Interproteccion, DeAcero, Total Health Nutrients, Alpinestars and Bell, visit their official websites at: www.estebanracing.com, www.art-grandprix.com,  www.gp2series.com, www.escuderiatelmex.com, www.fastenal.com, www.vector.com.mx, www.interproteccion.com.mx, www.deacero.com, www.totalhealthnutrients.com, www.alpinestars.com, www.bellsports.com