The sixth round of the 2011 GP2 Main Series at the Nurburgring started off today for Davide Valsecchi. At the end of qualifying, held this afternoon, Davide clocked the 18th fastest laptime and will take-off for race 1 from the 9th row of the grid.

The first day of racing activity at the Nurburgring started on a tough note, partly due to an off-track exit in practice happened after just 8 laps. Davide experienced more issues in qualifyingg as he suffered from a general lack of performance.

“The feeling I got from the car is that it was really well-balanced, but the laptimes have never been fast. Together with our technical staff we have to investigate the nature of the problem. It could well be something engine-related, but we still have to analyze the data. I was sure I would have done well and I wasn't expecting to start Race 1 so far down the grid...”

The first race of the series' German weekend is scheduled for tomorrow at 15:40, on a 34-lap distance. Live coverage will be provided by RaiSport 1.

Today's GP2 Series race at the Nurburgring won't be one to remember for Davide, as it turned out as one of the most ill-fated of his career. After having started well from row 8, he found the slowing car of Christian Vietoris in front of him, as the German was forced to brake hard to avoid the driver he had in front. “I tried to go around te backup on the right side of the track – told Davide – but I couldn't do anything to avoid the contact and damaged my front wing”.

After coming back to the pits to repair his front wing, another stop was needed to replace the right front tire, punctured in the contact but missed by the team's staff as it was going down slowly. Davide made it back on-track dead last, well far away from the pack, but kept recovering until the mandatory pit-stop: “I don't know what to say. The start has been good, we had gained several spots and I was hoping to end up in points. Today we didn't have a car capable to win, but ending up in 8th would have allowed us to start from the pole tomorrow at least. It's a pity.”

The closing race of the Nurburgring weekend is set to start tomorrow, on a 24-lap distance, at 10:30 AM. Live TV coverage will be provided live by RAI2. Davide will take-off from the 15th spot on the grid.

The closing race of the GP2 Main Series weekend at the Nurburgring started with Davide on row 6, and under an heavy rainfall. He began to fight his way up immediately though, reaching the points zone in just a few laps. At that point, the rain stopped and all the team started to call their drivers back to the pit-lane for slick tires. Unlike them, Davide, who had inherited the lead in the meantime, was left on-track in an attempt to gamble on the possible return on the rain. He started losing ground on his main followers, and he eventually hit the pits 6 laps after everyone else.

"The first few laps have been really good - told Davide - I overtook Filippi, who ended up in third, and while the track was drying up I was waiting for the call back to the tire change. Lap after lap they kept holding me out and I realized that they were hoping for some rain to come back falling in a few minutes. Unfortunately, it didn't happen and there was nothing I could do at that point."

Once back on-track, Davide found himself battling in the middle of a pack fighting for the last spots, and a contact with Palmer ended his day for good at lap 17. Unfortunately, bad news kept coming. After the end of the race, Davide was considered responsible for the contact, and assessed a 10-position penalty for the next race. He will be serving it in less than a week at the Hungaroring, on a racetrack which is not renowned for providing many passing opportunities.