Arthur Pic scored his first points of the season at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last weekend despite enduring another frustrating outing in round two of this year’s GP2 Series.

After the extreme disappointment of Bahrain, a number of issues again masked the Frenchman’s undoubted raw pace en route to ninth and eighth places, even if he was able to make headway in both encounters after lining up 11th for Saturday’s Feature Race.

A mega start saw the 23-year-old initially vault five positions before settling in behind team-mate Rio Haryanto. Indeed, the Campos Racing pair then spent much of the afternoon circulating together after dispensing with their soft compound tyres early in the race.

But their progress was compromised by the championship’s DRS system not working until the final laps, benefitting those that had stopped later and were on fresher rubber. Nevertheless, Pic still found himself in seventh as he closed in on DAMS pairing Pierre Gasly and Alex Lynn.

Despite harrying both drivers, the early switch to harder rubber and subsequent degradation ultimately left him fighting a rear-guard action that resulted in Norman Nato pinching eighth place and the reverse grid Sprint Race pole position on the final lap. But although far from ideal, ninth was still good enough to secure Pic his first points of the year.

“I made a really good start but just couldn’t look after the soft compound tyres over the first stint, which is what prompted the early switch,” explained Pic afterwards. “That was frustrating because it’s usually a strength of mine. We also knew it would have a knock-on effect later in the race but we didn’t have much choice and decided to roll the dice. We came pretty close to pulling it off considering we were one lap from securing Sprint Race pole, but the margins are so tight in GP2. Something like that can make or break your weekend.”

A five-second penalty to be applied post-race for being out of position on the grid then further compromised Arthur’s Sunday morning. Not only would he need to pick up positions but also establish a healthy advantage over his pursuers in order to score any further points.

His task was made easier by Mitch Evans – who should have lined up seventh – not taking the start, and then Raffaele Marciello spinning out following an early Virtual Safety Car.

And although Artem Markelov would get the better of their early tussle, Arthur kept his head down to reel in and depose seventh placed Nato with a fantastically judged lunge at Turn 1 on lap 15. But despite gapping his countryman, Pic was unable to establish a big enough advantage to overturn the five-second penalty and ultimately had to settle for a hard-earned point with eighth.

“It was a similar story on Sunday when tyre degradation proved the limiting factor,” he continued. “Obviously the gridding up procedure wasn’t ideal either! Mitch [Evans] wasn’t in front of me so there was a spare slot, but that’s not the reason for me being out of position. I was a bit too eager warming my tyres and overshot. But when I tried to reverse the guy behind me had taken my place. It was just one of those silly things that, fortunately, didn’t make a great deal of difference in the end. I’d have been seventh at best and am more disappointed that we didn’t have the pace to challenge for big points this weekend. That’s something we’ll need to urgently address before the next event.”

The GP2 Series now moves on to the challenging streets of Monte Carlo for round three on May 21-23.

For more information on Arthur Pic please visit www.arthurpic.com