By: DAMS Racing
August 29 2016

Alex Lynn scythed through from eighth to third in the Feature race at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend (August 26-28) to secure his fourth podium position of the 2016 GP2 season, while his DAMS team-mate Nicholas Latifi came away from the daunting Belgian track having impressed with his pace.

Lynn was 12th fastest in practice but the Williams Martini Racing Development Driver moved to eighth in qualifying. Latifi meanwhile, on his first Spa GP2 visit, was 11th just 0.1s behind Lynn.

Both drivers began the feature race on the 'Option' Pirelli soft tyre, pitting well before half distance of the 25-lap race. This strategy and exemplary stops from DAMS, proved crucial to Lynn's progress.

The Englishman then executed a number of brilliant overtakes, putting Lynn in top-three contention and when Norman Nato's car stopped at the Bus Stop with a couple of laps to go, he secured his first Saturday podium of the year.

Latifi's afternoon should have followed a similar pattern, but the Renault Sport Formula One Team Test Driver actually protected his tyres too much which meant he didn't progress higher than 13th position. Though he was the fastest car on the track towards the end.

Neither driver scored points in the Sprint race. Lynn produced another combative performance having dropped to eighth from sixth early on before hustling his way back.

Lynn finished sixth on the road but was given a 10-second penalty for opening the DRS before the system was officially available at the start of lap three, dropping him to 10th behind Latifi - who was classified ninth.

Round nine of this year's GP2 Series will take place this weekend in Monza (September 2-4).

Alex Lynn, P3/P10: "We're still struggling a bit in qualifying, but this weekend was a big step forward. I think we've got more to learn with the tyres but our pace is strong. It felt good to be back on the podium on Saturday. It's always more special than in Sunday's Sprint event. We should be fighting at the front, and I enjoyed the race a lot. We had a clean pitstop which is a really good thing about DAMS - we got the undercut on Marciello and Giovinazzi. Then I made my way through and passed Malja. As Norman stopped, that put us into a great podium position. It was a really solid and clean performance, which was much-needed. Sunday's Sprint race was disappointing with the penalty but it was generally difficult to pass, and I was pleased to be able to fight back up to sixth on the road."

Nicholas Latifi, P13/P9: "There's definitely a theme of disappointment with the results but I can be happy with the performance in the races. This weekend I tried to improve after Budapest and Hockenheim where I struggled quite a lot especially with the tyres. I feel I made a step forward in my performance, knowledge and experience I'm getting with the tyres at Spa. There is a fine line between pushing too much to try and maintain track position at the start of a race and then dropping off towards the end. The same applies with being too conservative at the start and then one of the fastest at the end."

François Sicard, Managing Director: "We worked on the setups during practice and we improved them for qualifying where we ended up P8 and P11. Alex produced a solid Feature race, very fast, with some great overtaking manoeuvres. Both drivers enjoyed fantastic pit stops, 4.6 and 4.7 seconds, which helped Alex create a brilliant podium. Nicolas also produced a great performance, but we were so concerned about tyre degradation that he looked after them too well! At the end of the race he was the fastest but it was too late, which is a shame because his speed was good enough for a top ten finish. The Sprint event was difficult, unfortunately Alex got a 10-second penalty for using the DRS on the first lap of the race. The system should not be activated by the organiser (only from the start of lap 3) but some drivers used it and Alex decided to do the same to protect his position. Nicholas was stuck behind another car and was frustrated because it does not show his level of performance over the weekend. He is still learning GP2 and did a great job. With Alex we are making progress and we hope to capitalise on this in Monza."