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GP2 News
Aspiring journalist Guillaume Navarro reports on the GP2 Series in Budapest
11/08/2008
Bridgestone, exclusive tyre supplier to the GP2 Series, announced the nine finalists of the 2008 Bridgestone e-reporter young journalists’ competition at the beginning of the GP2 season. In 2008, the e-reporter contest celebrates its fifth anniversary and Guillaume Navarro, a student living in Erquy, France, attended the Hungarian Grand Prix (02-03 August) to report on the GP2 Series as one of the finalists in this year’s pan-European contest, for students aged 18-30.
Each of the nine e-reporter finalists, who have aspirations to be professional journalists, are given the opportunity during the year to attend and report on a GP2 Series race weekend for the Bridgestone website, www.bridgestone.eu/e-reporter. Guillaume was the sixth e-reporter to submit race reports, working over the race weekend in Budapest.
Bridgestone e-reporter is strongly linked to the GP2 Series, the feeder series to Formula One. While GP2 was created to provide gifted young drivers with the chance to make their way to the pinnacle of motorsport, e-reporter was brought to life to support the talented young journalists of tomorrow.
During the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend Guillaume interviewed star drivers in the GP2 paddock, including Sunday’s sprint race winner Sébastien Buemi (Trust Team Arden) and Saturday’s pole sitter Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix).
Commenting on his invaluable experience, Guillaume said, “The Bridgestone e-reporter competition is highly rated in the paddock and the Bridgestone e-reporter title enabled me to meet many people I would have never been able to come close to in other circumstances. The rich conversations I had with a great number of highly esteemed actors - GP2 drivers, team members, journalists - made me feel part of the show. Being able to be an acknowledged insider was also a great prize in itself. This experience makes me even more determined to become a journalist!”
Entrants for this year’s Bridgestone e-reporter competition were asked to demonstrate their ability to write topical interview questions and a newsworthy story when applying for the competition. The high standard of entries from students writing in English as their second language was highlighted by this year’s judging panel, which includes high-profile international journalists from four different countries. This year the popularity of the competition has been shown by a 50 per cent increase in entries compared with 2007. Entrants also represented a wider range of European countries than ever before.
All Bridgestone e-reporter finalists announced for this year attended the official GP2 Series launch event in Barcelona (on 24 April), appearing on stage to mark the beginning of the season. All drivers making up the GP2 grid for 2008 were at the event along with Formula One personalities Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen, Mark Webber, Nelson Piquet and Lucas di Grassi.
The next Bridgestone e-reporter finalist to attend a race will be Tabatha Valls Halling (from Barcelona, Spain), who will be at the European Grand Prix in Valencia from 23-24 August. The overall winner of the 2008 Bridgestone e-reporter contest, due to be selected in September, will continue their work on Bridgestone-backed events and will be offered work experience as part of the competition prize.
For further information on the 2008 Bridgestone e-reporter competition, and to view race reports throughout the season from this year’s finalists, visit www.bridgestone.eu/e-reporter.
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