GP2 racer Michael Herck will miss the opening round of this year's championship at Barcelona after breaking his hand in the GP2 Asia event in Bahrain last weekend.

The 19-year-old Belgian broke a bone in his right wrist when he jarred his hand on the steering wheel after striking a kerb during a battle with Milos Pavlovic.

Herck will miss the final round of GP2 Asia in Dubai this weekend, but was also ruled out of the first races of the summer series on April 26-27 after visiting a specialist in Belgium. He hopes to be able to return for the second GP2 round at Istanbul on May 10-11.

His GP2 Asia team FMS International are likely to field Spaniard Roland Rodriguez in his place in Dubai this weekend, while DPR, who will run Herck this summer, are yet to confirm his replacement for Barcelona.

DPR boss David Price said: "We're disappointed that Michael won't be in the car for the first round. He's settled in well during the pre-season and we were all ready to take on the challenge of the new season and car together.

"Our sympathies are with Michael as I'm sure he's equally disappointed, and we wish him a speedy recovery and return."

Conducted and provided by GP2's press office.

Q. Romain, after being crowned GP2 Asia Series first Champion, how do you feel?

Romain Grosjean: Good, but weird because we won in the strangest way: I was Romain Grosjeandeclared champion even though I had to retire from the sprint race... You always prefer to win a title with a victory. Still, it enhances our motivation and confidence for the GP2 Series which will start in a few weeks. However, the GP2 Asia Series is not over and we will work hard in order to finish it with a win in Dubai this week and get prepared for the next championship.

Q. Was it important for you to become Champion in front of the F1 paddock?

RG: Of course since F1 is my dream and my goal. It was important to show that I'm competitive. I proved that I can be fast and ready to fight in any circumstances. Our next step is to develop the new GP2/08 car in order to try and get as good results with it as with the old car.

Q. Can you tell us exactly what happened yesterday in the sprint race?

RG: I took the lead after one lap and pulled away, but then, I lost the brakes at the back. All of a sudden, the wheels were blocked. I tried to stay on track as long as possible, but it became too dangerous and I had to retire. It's a real shame because I was so close to having the perfect weekend and score 20 points.

Q. How would you summarize your season?

RG: I entered the competition a rookie. I always said that the GP2 Asia Championship was the best way for me to learn more about the series and gain some experience. I'm lucky to be part of a team that I know quite well from F3 Euroseries: I know how they work and it helped me a lot starting from the very first race. After four days of testing in Dubai, I snatched my first pole position.

Then, during the race, I had to pit for the first time and it all went great. I knew I had the car to claim victory. But, the win in the sprint race was a surprise. With 19 points scored in the first meeting, I was comfortably leading the championship and it gave me some confidence. In Sentul, we had a more difficult time.

First of all, I made a mistake during qualifications. Then, in the feature race, we could have fought for victory, but we had a problem during the pit-stop. On top of that, we experienced some mechanical problems. We had been expecting more from our performance in Indonesia.

Therefore, when we arrived in Malaysia, we had great hopes and it seemed at first that we would repeat what had happened in Dubai, but I stalled on the grid… When I reflect on this, I think it's part of my apprenticeship too. After the red flag, I started from last and I almost could have won if I hadn't had been touched. I finished 9th and was so disappointed… The following day, I finished second.

It was important for me to prove that I know how to properly overtake and come back. And, moreover, this second place is what allowed me to win the championship.

Q. Did you really expect to be at this level of performance?

RG: Frankly, yes. I know that it surprised a lot of people, but my opinion is that this car is perfect for me: my engineer and I work closely together and we understand each other. I always knew that I was at the wheel of a perfectly balanced car and all I had to do was concentrate on my driving. When I have a good feeling with a car, I feel really strong and I take risks.

Q. People are going to ask you if you believe that you can repeat such a great performance in the GP2 Series…

RG: And I will cautiously answer that this will not be the case. Our first task is to develop the new car. This will be our main focus at the beginning of the season. Plus, there will be some extremely competitive and experienced drivers with us in the GP2 Series on top of people like Senna, Valles, Petrov or Chandhok. Many of them can win the title. It will be a different environment. Once again, I will be a rookie with a lot to learn, starting with the tracks! With the Asia Series, I gained valuable experience, but I'm still learning.

Q. You don't think you will be the man to beat then?

RG: I think I'm more of an outsider. Zuber, Maldonado, my teammate Filippi or Pantano for example: these are men to beat. They have the experience. I'm here to spice things up a little for them.

Romain Grosjean has played down his chances of winning the title in the main GP2 Series this season after clinching the GP2 Asia title last weekend.

The 21-year-old from Switzerland, making his debut in GP2 this year, dominated the championship, sealing the title with two races to spare.

Last year's F3 Euro Series champion Grosjean has scored 20 points more than his closest rival.

But despite his success in the Asian series, the Frenchman believes the situation will be very different once the main GP2 series begins in Spain at the end of the month.

"I will cautiously answer that this will not be the case," said Grosjean when asked about his thoughts on repeating his success in the main series.

"Our first task is to develop the new car. This will be our main focus at the beginning of the season. Plus, there will be some extremely competitive and experienced drivers with us in the GP2 Series on top of people like Senna, Valles, Petrov or Chandhok.

"Many of them can win the title. It will be a different environment. Once again, I will be a rookie with a lot to learn, starting with the tracks. With the Asia Series, I gained valuable experience, but I'm still learning."

Grosjean took the title despite failing to score in Sunday's race, and the ART driver admitted he would have preferred to clinch the title in style.

"I was declared champion even though I had to retire from the sprint race," he said. "You always prefer to win a title with a victory. Still, it enhances our motivation and confidence for the GP2 Series which will start in a few weeks.

"However, the GP2 Asia Series is not over and we will work hard in order to finish it with a win in Dubai this week and get prepared for the next championship."

The French track of Paul Ricard was the venue for Racing Engineering and all the 2008 GP2 Series teams to carry out the last testing before the start of the season in April at Barcelona,on the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. For the Repsol and Telefonica backed team the outcome, not only of this final testing but also for the whole winter season, couldn't be better. Once again both Giorgio and Javi have usually been on the top of the timesheet, finishing the last day in second and third positions, which confirm Racing Engineering as one of the most balanced and most competitive teams of the series.

In these two days of testing at Paul Ricard, the team's work program had several areas to cover: taking advantage of the two track layouts used for these tests to try different aerodynamic setups, and focusing on developing the new Dallara in race conditions and practising such important things as starts and pit stops. On Wednesday the teams ran on the 3D layout of Paul Ricard, moving to the slower 2D on Thursday, useful for testing with more aero load ahead of the Monaco race.

Giorgio, Javi and the whole Racing Engineering technical staff perfectly followed the work plan, fulfilling the targets for these last two days of testing, and although setting fast laptimes wasn't a priority, the two drivers did good lap times throughout the two days. In fact, Javi finished the first day as third overall, and on Thursday both Javi and Giorgio were in the top three, ending up the day in second and third place.

With the preseason already over as regards track testing Racing Engineering are looking forward with optimism to the first race of the season at Barcelona. The good results achieved by the two drivers in all the tests and the fact that the first race is `at home' give all the members of the team an extra boost so they are waiting anxiously for the start of the season.

Thomas Couyotopoulo (Sporting Director): "I'm happy with both the sporting and technical results. We came here with a different setup for the second day and also the grip conditions were different today from the first day so we had to work hard to change a few things in the cars. Our work plan was focused on the variations needed in order to adapt the car to a track like Monaco and also to test the "long run" thinking on the races, as well as on working on general aspects of the cars to keep developing them. Wee have also get some good sporting results, showing that we can keep in front with both Giorgio and Javi, who finished first this morning and second in the day, with Giorgio third overall. I'm also very happy with the work done by the mechanics they had to work until very late once more as the new car isn't yet totally reliable. Good work also by the engineers and drivers, showing that Racing Engineering starts the season strongly and with good chances to get wins this year.

Javier Villa (driver car number 11): "Actually the test weren't bad. The track was a bit tricky, the car was moving quite a bit at the rear so we had to work hard but I think that, at the end of the day, which maybe helped us to look for things that could be useful for the year. Finally all went well, yesterday we were third, today second with Giorgio third, we are both together and that's good, it means the whole team is going fast. This afternoon there was a moment when times suddenly improved even if our focus was on other things like practice starts, race setups or for Monaco as today was a day to work mainly on the aerodynamics so laptimes weren't our target but, anyway, I think we are there. We are all setting very close times, the differences with the drivers behind us are small so let's see what happens in Barcelona, there our last test was good, the whole team is strong and I think that at Barcelona we'll be up there."

Giorgio Pantano (driver car number 12): "For us I think the track had changed compared to the first test and we found more problems compared to the first test but in the end we did quite well. I am sure that the work we did today was good, the car was working very well and the team was working well. We understand a lot more now how the car works and also the team and I know each other a bit more now and we go to Barcelona with a good configuration I think. We did well this afternoon, we came back to the top and I think we will be at the top also in Barcelona."

Trident Racing successfully ended winter testing for the upcoming GP2 Main Series season at Paul Ricard. The team owned by Maurizio Salvadori completed a flawless 2-day experience.

The tests were held on two different configurations of the French racetrack, as the usual 3D configuration was replaced by the 2D one on Day 2. The final session of the first day brought Mike Conway another top-5 performance, with a top mark of 1:12.968, that put him in 4th place overall. In the meantime, Ho Pin Tung completed his Day 1 tasks with a personal best of 1:14.554, clocked in the morning session. On Day 2, both drivers had their best performances in the afternoon: the British driver was 9th (1:10.517), while Tung ended up in 23rd place (1:11.123). Trident Racing will be profiting from the 5 weeks that separate teams from the GP2 Main Season season start by working on data acquisition and technical development. The team will be busy with wind tunnel and 7-post shake rig tests.

Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Managing Director

"I`m really pleased with what we achieved at the end of the two days of testing at Le Castellet. The drivers, as well as the whole team, managed to recover all the work missed at Barcelona, and to complete their tasks on both types of track configuration. Day 1 ended with a great lap clocked by Mike Conway, while Tung continued in his learning process on the new car. On Day 2, we tried several different aero configurations, with lighter and heavier wing loads, with the heaviest one expected to be vital for the event at Monte Carlo. The 9th place scored by Conway was mainly due to red flags, as his best mark was set without new tires. As we completed our on-track job for now, we`re set to start wind tunnel and 7-post shaker tests, in order to refine our data and define the set-up to be used in the first seasonal round. We`re all very convinced about our chance for the year, and we`re determined to leave nothing to case in order to score all the goals we set for the 2008 season”.

The last GP2 testing day before the beginning of the race season showed once again that Javier Villa is in the best position to be one of the main contenders in the F1 feeder series.

The Spanish driver finished this morning's session with the fastest overall time among the 26 drivers who will compete this year in GP2. Javier's best lap time, set on his last run, was two tenths quicker than anybody else's time. This was a perfect ending for a hard working session when the driver and the Racing Engineering technical staff focused on improving the rear end balance of his Dallara. This was something that they clearly achieved shown by the very good times set by Javi throughout the practice session, run on the 2D layout of Paul Ricard, slower and ideal for trying high load aero setups.

With the satisfaction of having his name on the top of the timesheet, Villa looked forward to the work due in the afternoon session, less gratifying for immediate results but crucial in fine tuning for race preparations. The last testing session was mainly about practicing starts, pit stops, race stints and so on, without looking for fast times but nevertheless running again quickly and consistently. By the end of the session, Javi was third fastest, just a few thousandths off first place and with the feeling that all the winter work has been going in the right direction.

Now that the preseason testing has finished the next date for Javier Villa in the GP2 series will be the first race weekend of the year, held at Montmelo's track on the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. Driving In front of his home crowd, and after all the positive things seen over the winter, Villa hopes to give his Spanish fans something to cheer about and battle from the first qualifying session for the top position.

Javier Villa's own words:

"We are improving each time and today we finished first this morning, two tenths ahead the second-placed car. We have been working to 'hold up' the rear end of the car and today it was going better than yesterday. In the afternoon it was a totally different matter, the focus was on starts, pit stops, tyre changes, long runs ... and even though near the end the wind dropped and the lap times improved so we ended up third, just thousandths behind the fastest.

"We can see that we've got a good base package, really strong. Now we got to Barcelona for the moment of truth: the qualifying, the races ... so far everything has been good and I hope it goes on like that."

On March 12th & 13th, the GP2 Series teams completed a 2-day test session at the Paul Ricard HTTT to finalize the car set-ups for the 2008 season starting in Barcelona on April 26th.

During these two days, the teams and drivers worked on two different track solutions to adjust the car's set-ups in diverse configurations. They first continued the work started in February on the general set-up of the new car on the 3D track solution (3,853 km) on Wednesday. They then fine-tuned the cars for more sinuous and slow tracks such as Monaco (in town circuit), with the 2D Short (3,586 km) track solution.

The 3D configuration's best lap time of the session was set by Indian driver Karun Chandhok (iSport International) in 1:12.717 on Wednesday, while the overall best lap time of this track was set by Frenchman Romain Grosjean last February in 1:12.031. The fastest driver of this session on 2D Short track solution was set by Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado (Piquet Sport) in 1:10.062. For the record the overall best lap on this track was set by Andreas Zuber Team iSport International last year (March 2007) in 1:09.713.

The 26 drivers completed some 14000 km over the two days and are now ready to start their 2008 season in Barcelona, Spain on April 25th&26th.

The next GP2 Series test session at the Paul Ricard HTTT will take place on June 10th&11th for the mid-season session.

In the two testing days just concluded at Paul Ricard, men of BCN Competicion Team worked on the optimisation of the race setup of the single seaters. This morning both Nocera and Pavlovic defined the configuration that suited better their racing style and focused particularly on getaways and pit stops, a new thing for the Italian driver that comes from Formula 3 whereby the tyre change is not a standard procedure during the race.

In the afternoon, the two cars have been involved in a partial race simulation with tanks full of fuel. This gave the Team important information in sight of the first race of the GP2 Main Series.

The team will move in the next days to Sepang, Malaysia, for the third round of the GP2 Asia Series.

Circuit: Paul Ricard Venue: Le Castellet Session: Testing

BCN Competicion
Car #26
Driver: Paolo Maria Nocera

BCN Competicion
Car #27
Driver: Milos Pavlovic

Paul Ricard, France: India's Karun Chandhok was in top form in the final GP2 Series tests at the Paul Ricard circuit this week, topping the times on the opening day and finishing fourth in the second. The 24-year-old from Chennai, who is backed by Red Bull, JK Tyre, Amaron and ICSA Logistics, had suffered a trying time in the previous two test sessions with his new iSport International car, as numerous technical issues had hindered his track time.

"It was a big relief to have a problem-free couple of test days at last," said Karun. "I always believed that I would be on the pace when we had ironed out these teething problems, and I finally got to prove it. The team and I have really been working hard to fix the problems and it was nice to finally get down to working on setup changes. My engineer Richard Selwin and I worked through a good program which has given us a better understanding of the new car for the main series. Bruno ( Senna, team-mate ) and I have also established a good relationship and this I think is helping us as a team."

Despite tricky weather conditions, due to high winds, Chandhok lapped the Paul Ricard circuit in 1m12.717s on Wednesday. He ended the day nearly a tenth of a second clear of Piquet Sports driver Pastor Maldonado with the current GP2 Asia series leader Romain Grosjean in third. On day two on Thursday, the teams had to change the set-up of their cars overnight in order to run in high-downforce-spec. Again, Chandhok adapted well to the first test with the car carrying these settings, lapping a different, more twisty layout of the track in 1m10.210s, which was less than two-tenths off the pace in fourth place.

Karun added: "These two days of testing have put us in a good position ahead of the season-opener. We got through a great amount of work including some qualifying and race simulations as well as some pitstop practices. I do feel that we have taken a step forward with the new GP2/08 car but at the moment it still looks like there are at least 14 drivers who could potentially win races this year."

The main GP2 Series starts in Barcelona on April 26/27 supporting the Spanish Grand Prix. However, Chandhok's next race is the third round of GP2 Asia in Sepang, supporting the Malaysian Grand Prix on March 22/23. Looking ahead to the weekend, he said "I'm really looking forward to Sepang. It's a great circuit and one that I have really enjoyed racing on in the past. It's nice to finish the European tests well as a bit of a confidence boost ahead of next weekend's race. There are normally quite a few Indians who come over to Sepang for the grand prix and we're going to try and give them something extra to cheer about !"

With the end of the last two days of collective tests at Le Castellet, Paolo Maria Nocera's work in preparation of the 2008 season of the GP2 Main Series has been completed today.

The Italian driver focused today particularly on the race setup of his single seater: "We completed today the testing programme that we scheduled at the beginning of the year. We did not have any particular difficulties, apart from the normal ones that you can encounter when you start a new project like the Dallara GP2/08.

"In the afternoon, with all the due care, I decided to stop a partial race simulation after anomalies to the gear. Performance-wise, these tests gave us some very useful information to keep on developing the single seater, that in the next days will be subject to some important updates at the Team's headquarters in Barcelona".

Barely a week after its encouraging test session in Barcelona in Spain, the DAMS team continued its intensive development programme for the 2008 GP2 season on the Paul Ricard circuit. Over the past two days Kamui Kobayashi and Jérôme d¹Ambrosio found themselves on familiar territory on a track on which the team had practised a couple of weeks previously.

This was the last test session before the first round of the championship on 26th/27th April in Barcelona.

Yesterday, Kamui ran into technical problems and was unable to go as quickly as he would have liked. Despite the delay in his programme, today he was able to set a time more in keeping with his hopes finishing seventh-quickest time only 0.356s off the pace setter. Jérôme was only able to break into the top 20 on one occasion.

Thierry Bouvet, chief engineer: "We concentrated on basics which should help us throughout the season. Among other things our programme was axed around preparing qualifying and race set-ups. We¹ve made a lot of progress in these areas and the pieces of the puzzle are gradually falling into place.

Unfortunately, Kamui¹s session yesterday was severely hindered by technical problems due to teething troubles with the car. In Jérôme¹s case I think we¹ve managed to put our finger on the reason for his difficulties on new rubber. Even if it doesn¹t seem to be the case in terms of performance in this session, we now know which way to go and that¹s very positive."

Kamui Kobayashi
Day 1: morning: 1m 13.775s ­ 13th time
Day 1: afternoon: 1m 14.020s ­ 19th time
Day2: morning: 1m 10.571s ­ 8th time
Day 2: afternoon: 1m 10.418s ­ 7th time

"Unfortunately, I ran into a number of mechanical problems. So for me anyway this hasn¹t been a great session. Even though the Paul Ricard layout requires a set-up that¹s rather different to the other circuits, it¹s very encouraging to see that we¹ve made a step forward compared to our previous performance on this track. It¹s a point in our favour. Personally speaking, I¹m now very much at home behind the wheel."

Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Day 1: morning: 1m 14.230s ­ 20th time
Day 1: afternoon: 1m 14.482s ­ 23rd time
Day2: morning: 1m 11.271s ­ 21st time
Day 2: afternoon: 1m 11.104s ­ 22nd time

"Despite our position in the overall classification we¹re making good progress, and that goes for me as well. But there are still a few details to be sorted out: for example, why can¹t I manage to improve on my performance on old tyres when I put on new rubber? We have to continue working to solve this problem, and I feel we¹re going in the right direction."