Motorsport: Evans on track to close the gap

Mitch Evans (foreground) passes Raffaele Marciello at Spa Francorchamps, where he put himself back into contention for a top three finish. Photo / GP2Media

New Zealand driver needs points at Monza to stay in contention for top three finish in GP2 championship

New Zealander Mitch Evans is keen to get into action at Monza, Italy this weekend in an effort to close on the four drivers in front of him in the GP2 championship.

With six races to go including two this weekend, it's not likely Evans will be able to challenge leader Jolyon Palmer who has a 100-point advantage over the Aucklander. However, Jonny Cecotto (4th), and Stoffel Vandoorne (3rd) are only 17 and 25 points ahead respectively.

After a stuttering start to his 2014 campaign, Evans hit a purple patch mid-season notching up wins to haul himself into contention for a top three series finish.

He hit a speed bump in Hungary when he scored no points, but his Russian Time team came good next time out at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium picking up 18 valuable points. Monza might be shorter than Spa but it has many similarities. It's a track where the cars have to be quick and be able to handle the high-speed corners like the world famous Parabolica, as well as the Variante Ascari where the cars change direction rapidly.

Evans is looking forward to getting down to business at Monza as the place has fond memories for him.

"It hasn't been long since Spa and I can't wait to get back into it," said Evans from Italy. "It's always great to be back at Monza with all its history and it's been a good track for me.

"I've got pole here in GP3 and it's also the track I won the GP3 championship [2012] at so I'm looking forward to being able to do something similar.

"We were fast in Spa and should have got at least a podium but a few things didn't go our way. We'll take what we learnt from Spa and put it to good use here and hopefully be able to get on the podium again."

Monza wasn't a particularly happy hunting ground for Evans last year when he raced with Arden International.

He could only qualify 16th and finished 15th in the feature race and posted a DNF in race two.

Things are looking much better this year as his current team have shown they could provide the Kiwi with a fast car as shown at Spa, so they'll have a good base to build on this weekend.

All the teams will be looking to reduce the amount of aero on the cars and will remove many of the various winglets in an effort to achieve the highest possible speed on the straights. The cars will primarily be relying on mechanical grip to get through the corners rather than downforce generated by a lot of wing.

"Monza is quite similar to Spa as it's also a quick track, but we can run with even less downforce here as there are fewer corners. "The car balance has to be right to get the most grip though.

"It's always a bit tricky in the breaking zones with half the aero downforce available, which makes it a bit hairy and tricky. Especially when we're doing up to 320km/h in places and then having to stop pretty quickly.

"It is a bit of a buzz though," said Evans.

The two hardest compound Pirelli tyres have been chosen for this weekend due to the high demands the track puts on rubber. With a mixture of high speed, heavy braking and sudden changes of direction, the tyres are soon at maximum temperature.

Tyre and pitstop strategy will play a big part this weekend with the team who get both right definitely having an advantage over the rest of the field. "We'll have to get our pitstops organised right as it can be a good way to move up through the field.

"If we qualify up the front it takes some of pressure of by not having to risk the tyres trying to get through the field."

GP2 points (after 8 rounds)
1. Jolyon Palmer 210
2. Felipe Nasar178
3. Stoffel Vandoorne135
4. Johnny Cecotto127
5. Mitch Evans110
6. Stefano Coletti98
7. Arthur Pic70
8. Julian Leal66