Sentul set to lose GP2 Asia race

The track surface broke up during the weekend and flying debris caused extensive damage to the cars. Stones chipped and gouged holes in wings, sidepods, bargeboards and airboxes, forcing teams to tape or reinforce the parts with aluminium plates.

DPR boss David Price told Autosport: "We've gone through four new radiators. They either get holes smashed through them or dust blocks them solid and there's no cooling.

"It's cost us 25,000 Euros per car, just in damage."

iSport driver Karun Chandhok experienced similar issues during a Renault V6 race at Sentul two years ago, but not with this severity.

"It was breaking up a bit then, but nothing like as bad as this," he said. "We're going a lot quicker in GP2 cars and I don't know whether it's the ground effect, but a lot more stones and chunks are being kicked up."

Excessive dust also punished the cars and several retired due to overheating - only 11 of 26 cars finished Saturday's feature race and Sebastien Buemi was forced to give up chasing Luca Filippi for the lead because the dust had pushed his engine temperature 20C higher than normal.

Sentul's under-prepared marshals and recovery crews were were responsible for several lengthy safety car periods, bringing the event under further criticism from teams and drivers.

Series organisers will almost certainly refuse to return to Sentul until several modifications are made.

GP2 operations director Marco Cordello was disappointed by the situation, but expressed a desire for GP2 Asia to live up to its intention to bring top-class racing to new countries.

"We couldn't have predicted this," he said. "When a circuit is granted a licence you expect it to be up to standard. I think if we were ever to come back here we would request a proper standard of facilities to suit GP2.

"But it's a big shame because if you take away the problems we had some amazing racing and the concept of GP2 Asia was working very well."