After the round scheduled at Al Sakhir was cancelled, the GP2 Asia Series was back on-track today at Imola, with the Italian venue replacing the Bahrain one. Davide had a good chance to prove strong in front of the home crowd, though qualifying proved tougher than planned. Ninth place didn't meet Davide's expectations, especially considering he was standing in 4th with just 10 minutes to go.

"I hoped to end up into the top-5 - told Davide - but after having clocked some good laptimes with my first set of new tires, we made a set-up modification that didn't pay off. We lost pace with the second set and due to the worsened handling of the car  I just couldn't improve."

The 35-lap race 1 will be taking off at 14:00 with live TV coverage will be provided in Italy by Rai Sport 2. The race weekend at Imola will be the start of a really demanding journey for Davide, since right on Monday he'll be off for Melbourne, where he'll make his official F.1 debut in the free practice of the Australian Grand Prix.

After qualifying in 9th at Imola, Davide promised he would have been back to the top, and that's what he delivered at the end of race 1. On yesterday's qualification, he faced an hard luck and didn't manage to wound up better than a spot on row 5. On today's race he provided an amazing comeback to take the 6th spot under checkered.

"I was quite confident before the start – told Davide – because with the team we had planned a pretty aggressive strategy. Our plan was to stop early and take full advantage of fresh tires. Unfortunately, after just one fast lap, I found some slower cars in front which had opted for the same strategy. I had to ease my pace from my best laptime (1:30.4) to over 1:31. It's a bit of a shame because we were prevented from using all we had in terms of potential, though I still managed to get three spots back. Without that traffic we could have aimed at 4th place, not more”.

The 6th place scored at Imola allowed Davide to retain third place in standings and provided him with a spot on row 2 for the final GP2 Asia Series race of the weekend. The start is scheduled for tomorrow at 14:00, with live coverage in Italy by RaiSport 2.

On the last race of the 2011 GP2 Asia Series today at Imola, Davide Valsecchi took off from last place due to a penalty assessed to him by the stewards, who excluded him from race 1. A slight yet decisive technical oversight by the team caused his car to be too low by just some millimeters and, at the end of the post-race checks, the scrutineers had to disqualify him. As a consequence, Davide ran an aggressive race 2 and started climbing back since the early stages.

"Of course, when you start from the rear you don't have a lot of chances to aim at the top of the charts - told Davide - so I spent the race as a testing session to collect some data which will definitely help us through the season. The feedback has been extremely positive, and that somehow increased the regret over yesterday's penalty because I could have definitely had my say for victory. Despite making a nice start, I got stuck in traffic and had to settle for 17th. My fastest lap has been pretty good, and while we still probably have some work still to do before being able to win races, I think we made a good step forward."

Starting from tomorrow, Davide will be fully-focused on his official Formula 1 debut, as he'll be running in the free practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix. A long flight to Australia will lead him to his maiden day as a racer running in the World's top racing series.