By John Verghese
JAPANESE driver Kamui Kobayashi will seek to consolidate his position at the top in the fourth round of the maiden night GP2 Asia Series which commences with a practice session at the Losail International Circuit tonight.
With an aggregate of 34 points after three rounds, Kobayashi holds a 10-point lead over Davide Valsecchi of Durango team followed by Piquet GP's Spanish driver Roldan Rodriguez with 22 points.
After failing to make it to the podium in the opening round in Shanghai, Dams team drivers Kobayashi and teammate Jerome d'Ambrosio bounced back strongly in the third round in Bahrain after the second leg in Dubai was cancelled due to heavy rain. At the Bahrain International Circuit, Kobayashi and Ambrosio completed a superb 1-2 for Dams while finishing ahead of Arden team's Edoardo Mortara.
It is the confidence of this victory that will spur them on as they take on the challenge of night racing. "I am eagerly looking forward to the race. Racing at night will give all the drivers a feel of what they can expect when they move on to the Formula One and compete in the night race in Singapore," said Kobayashi, who did testing for Toyota F1 team last season.
Piquet GP's Rodriguez said the track was excellent with fast corners but drivers would need to adapt to the conditions quickly. "It will be harder for tyres to warm during the night race but that is something all the drivers will have to try hard to overcome during the event," he said.
As many as 13 teams are in the fray and Dams is the current leader in the teams' championship after three rounds with 51 points, followed by Durango (24) and Piquet GP (22).
Meanwhile, My Qi-Meritus.Mahara has announced that it will field Portuguese driver Alvaro Parente as a replacement for its New Zealand driver Earl Bamber for the Qatar round.
Bamber, who achieved a second place finish on the podium in the first round in Shanghai withdrew at short notice due his decision to prepare for the A1 Grand Prix round to be held in Kyalami, South Africa in the last week of February.
Parente, a multi-Europe Championship winning driver will join Italian driver Marco Bonanomi to spearhead the Malaysian-Saudi racing team's hopes in the event.
The 24-year-old Porto-born Parente has scored over 20 wins and 40 podiums in his career also made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the opening round of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya. Parente won the feature race making him the first Portuguese driver to win in GP2 Series. He eventually finished eighth in the drivers' championship
"I am very pleased to have the opportunity to drive for Qi-Meritus.Mahara and to team up with Bonanomi. I am excited about joining a strong and competitive team which has surprised established teams. I'll do my best to show gratitude to the faith Questnet, the sponsors and the fans have placed in me.
"I hope to be fully ready for the first night race of the weekend in Qatar. I will spend most of the following days learning the circuit and quickly getting up to speed," he added.
Peter Thompson, team founder, said: "We would like to welcome Parente to his first race with Qi-Meritus.Mahara, and at relatively short notice he certainly has a task on hand. My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara is fighting to stay in the running with the top teams in the championship. Our sponsors need our drivers to be on the podium and I am hopeful that our lineup will fight hard to continue scoring points."
The schedule: Feb 12: Speedcar: Practice session, 7.00-8.00 pm; GP2 Asia: Qualifying session, 8.30-9.00pm.
Feb 13: GP2 Asia: Race 1, 7.00-8.15 pm; Speedcar: Qualifying (5.45-6.15 pm), Race 1, 9.40-10.20pm.
Feb 14: GP2 Asia: Race 2, 7.00-7.45pm; Speedcar: Race 2, 9.00-9.40pm.
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