Grosjean pleased with strong start
Romain Grosjean believes that the hard work put in between himself and his new team Barwa Addax was rewarded after he took pole position for tomorrow's opening race of the GP2 season at Barcelona, although he concedes that he still faces some difficult opposition
Grosjean switched to the former Campos Racing squad for this season after spending his rookie year with ART, and says he and the team are starting to gel despite a tough start.
"We had the chance to work with each other in the Asia Series to see how each other was working and what we could improve, and today being on pole is something that is very good for all of us," he said. "Especially because it is the first race of the season and it means that everything is going well between the driver and the team.
"When you don't race you have some doubt, and when you first come you don't know what's going on. But testing was not fantastic, we had to see why that was. We worked very hard with the team and in the end it worked. This morning [in practice] we were fast and this afternoon we were fast again. So I think this is the best way to start the season."
Pre-season expectations were that Grosjean's main threat for the title would be Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi, and the Brazilian bore that out by qualifying second, falling just 0.021s short of Grosjean's time, while Grosjean's Barwa team-mate Vitaly Petrov will start from third.
"We were expecting Lucas to be here, he is here, and it is very good to have Vitaly here as well," Grosjean said. "Expectations? The best thing would be to win. Everybody knows it will be a tough and long race; we know that we will have to be careful with the tyres.
"I'm sure Lucas will be there again. But let's work with the team now and try to set up the car for tomorrow. It is going to be a long race, but I am really looking forward to it."
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