James Jakes has faced a taxing debut weekend in the GP2 Asia series after crashes by him and other drivers cost him a decent shot at qualifying and then a feature race finish.
The Super Nova driver was 11th in Friday practice with a time of 1:46.363 off 11 laps – compared to the 1:45.527 put down by the fastest driver, Dams’ Kamui Kobayashi.
But, post-qualifying, he found himself near the back of the grid with a time of 1:49.026 after only managing to put in three laps before crashing heavily and triggering a red flag.
Pole position was taken by the Piquet driver Roldan Rodriguez with a time of 1:45.233 and his Super Nova team-mate Javier Villa was third on 1:45.643.
With his weekend compromised in this way, the feature race was already looking difficult. Jakes made it as far as lap 19 of an incident-strewn outing before being taken out by Fisichella Motorsport driver Andreas Zuber who spun into his path while trying to overtake Durango’s Davide Valsecchi.
The sprint race made for a more positive end to the weekend, however, with the Yorkshireman finishing 11th in a race won by Valsecchi after another start from the rear of the field. This time Villa was third.
The next GP2 Asia race is due to be held in Dubai from December 5. You can catch up on all the news, results and fixtures on the series website here.