King ends maiden GP2 season with strong points finish
Date: 01 / 12 / 2015
Racing Engineering driver Jordan King completed his maiden season in the GP2 Series with a sixth-place finish at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit.
After scoring eight championship points in Saturday’s 31-lap feature race, the 21-year-old Briton was all set to improve on that in Sunday’s 22-lap sprint ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix before a multiple-car shunt behind him on the opening lap caused the race to be stopped and not restarted. King was running in third at the time, looking good for his second podium finish of his rookie year in the F1-feeder formula.
“It was a bit of a nightmare,” Kings reflects. “The speed was there for a podium finish, so it’s a shame. The main thing, though, was that nobody was injured in the big pile-up behind.
“The weekend started pretty well,” King continues. “Practice was good – I was seventh fastest and the car felt good. I was a little bit disappointed to only be eighth on the grid, as the pace was there for a top-five starting slot.”
Undeterred for the first race of the 2015 series’ final weekend, King admits he then made things more difficult for himself than was needed.
“I flatspotted both my front tyres quite early on,” he admits, “so that made the balance of the car go awry. I think we did a good job to come home sixth though, which of course meant third on the grid for the reversed race-two line-up. The race was encouraging for a lot of reasons, but it was such a shame that I wasn’t able to build on it the following day.”
A good start from the second row meant King was battling for second place through the first few corners, just as the nasty shunt behind was unfolding. With damage to the barriers and the circuit littered with debris, a decision was taken to cancel the event. It meant King was unable to improve on his joint-10th place in the drivers’ championship.
“Things were looking good,” he says. “It was still a good way to end the season and I head into the winter pretty pleased with how the finale played out, speed-wise.”