Esteban Gutierrez

Lausitz, Germany – The significant progress that the Mexican Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez had made during qualifying was tarnished during the race due to a small error by the driver and by the weather conditions over the Lausitz Eurospeedway circuit, where the third date in the Formula 3 Euroseries 2009 was being celebrated.

The young driver from the French ART Grand Prix team had managed to get into tenth place with a time of 1:32.584 after finishing qualifying in the morning, showing good times and demonstrating his evolution within the competitive European series.

However, in the race, the youth who drives the car number 23 through fault of a small error which he made in turn 8, on lap 5, he ended up at the back of the grid. Adding to this problem, his car would not start making his reincorporation into the race more difficult. He made an effort to catch up to his fellow drivers but the error made it too difficult. He finished with a valuable lesson in 24th position.

During the first five laps, contact and errors caused several drivers to retire from the race. At the same time received the only yellow flags of the race. After these incidents the race was without problems till the end.

Esteban stood out with third best time in the race and was the fastest of all the rookies, registering a best time of 1:18.303, only 00:00.281 slower than the fastest driver of the race, Stefano Coletti from the Prema Powerteam.

Esteban’s team also recieved the positive note consolidating 1-2 in the race today through the French driver Jules Bianchi, who finished 2.776 seconds ahead of his team mate Valterri Bottas, which shows that they are working together to achieve great results within the Series.

Gutiérrez is taking on this big challenge of consolidating himself in the international field advancing step by step, aware of the obstacles, but also standing firm with his objective to put the name of Mexico at the forefront.

Tomorrow Esteban will begin in 24th position confronting his fourth race and commitment to continue improving, with the knowledge that he has learned and with the pride of being the only Mexican represented in this important category.

“In the qualifying the weather conditions were variable and so for that reason the most important thing was to put all the effort in from beginning to end, as if I just had one lap. We are happy with the result that we got, because we were in a good position for the race with the possibility of gaining more points.”

In the race I got a good start maintaining my position in the first curve and then I lost a position after a tussle. I kept right behind the cars in front until about the fifth lap when I made I spun on a slippery white painted line. The good thing is that I could continue the race and finished it, as I consider it important to take advantage of the time on the track to get to know the car better. At the end we got the third best lap of the race which gives us a good start. We have to keep working in the same direction without losing motivation because in reality you can see that we have the speed to be fighting at the top we just need to put together all the positives and the experience that we have gained in the championship so far. These experiences make me stronger mentally and that is something I thank God also because we continue working with a positive mind ", commented Esteban Gutierrez after finishing the third race of the championship.

Esteban Gutiérrez thanks his sponsors Multigama, DeAcero, Telmex, Alpinestars, and Bell for all the support that they have given him in F3 Euroseries.

He also thanks Telmex for being part of this purpose to bring Mexico back to the forefront of motor racing at a world level.

Official Calendar for the 2009 Formula 3 Euroseries 2009:

May 15-17 – Races 1 & 2 - Hockenheim, Germany
May 29-31 - Races 3 & 4 - Lausitz, Germany
June 26-28 - Races 5 & 6 - Norisring, Germany
July 17-19 - Races 7 & 8 - Zandvoort, Netherlands
July 31-August 2 - Races 9 & 10 - Oschersleben, Germany
August 14-16 - Races 11 & 12 - Nurburg, Germany
September 4-6 - Races 13 & 14 - Brands Hatch, UK
September 18-20 - Races 15 & 16 - Barcelona, Spain
October 9-11 - Races 17 & 18 - Dijon, France
October 23-25 - Races 19 & 20 - Hockenheim, Germany

Race track website: www.eurospeedway.de
Track lenght: 3.478 km
Track record for Formula 3 Euroseries: Kazuki Nakajima (Dallara F305 Mercedes), 1m 15.576s (2006)
Pole position 2008: No race was held on this track in 2008
Previous winners: 2005 Hamilton / Hamilton - 2006 Guerrieri / Nakajima

Live timing will be available at: www.estebangtz.com

For more information about Esteban Gutierrez, the ART Grand Prix team, the Formula 3 Euroseries, or sponsors Multigama, DeAcero, Telmex, Alpinestars and Bell, visit their official websites at: www.estebangtz.com, www.art-grandprix.com, www.f3euroseries.com, www.deacero.com, www.telmex.com, www.alpinestars.com, www.bellsports.com.