GP2 2008

[blizzard]

Maybe Chandhok will be in Force India soon? His late performances were really great.

[TwistedArmco]

I'd bet on Seb Buemi getting a seat at STR and Giorgio Pantano taking a seat at Toyota, albiet probably only a test seat.

[Zack]

Grosjean grabs first pole in Hungary

Code: Select all

Pos  Driver             Team                   Time         Gap
 1.  Romain Grosjean    ART                    1:27.782
 2.  Andi Zuber         Piquet Sports          1:27.864  +0.082
 3.  Lucas di Grassi    Campos                 1:27.866  +0.084
 4.  Vitaly Petrov      Campos                 1:28.035  +0.253
 5.  Karun Chandhok     iSport                 1:28.062  +0.280
 6.  Mike Conway        Trident                1:28.123  +0.341
 7.  Giorgio Pantano    Racing Engineering     1:28.203  +0.421
 8.  Bruno Senna        iSport                 1:28.237  +0.455
 9.  Jerome d'Ambrosio  DAMS                   1:28.413  +0.631
10.  Kamui Kobayashi    DAMS                   1:28.513  +0.731
11.  Sebastien Buemi    Arden                  1:28.562  +0.780
12.  Sakon Yamamoto     ART                    1:28.730  +0.948
13.  Andy Soucek        Super Nova             1:28.750  +0.968
14.  Diego Nunes        DPR                    1:28.756  +0.974
15.  Alvaro Parente     Super Nova             1:28.921  +1.139
16.  Davide Valsecchi   Durango                1:28.926  +1.144
17.  Ho-Pin Tung        Trident                1:29.010  +1.228
18.  Javier Villa       Racing Engineering     1:29.094  +1.312
19.  Adrian Valles      BCN                    1:29.188  +1.406
20.  Roldan Rodriguez   FMS                    1:29.458  +1.676
21.  Luca Filippi       Arden                  1:29.876  +2.094
22.  Michael Herck      DPR                    1:30.021  +2.239
23.  Carlos Iaconelli   BCN                    1:30.220  +2.438
24.  Marko Asmer        FMS                    1:30.258  +2.476
25.  Alberto Valerio    Durango                no time
26.  Pastor Maldonado   Piquet Sports          no time

Asia Series champion Romain Grosjean scored the first pole position of his main GP2 Series career at the Hungaroring on Friday afternoon, just beating Andi Zuber and Lucas di Grassi by fractions of a second in a thrilling session.

Grosjean lapped his ART Grand Prix car in 1:27.762, which was 0.082 seconds quicker than Zuber's Piquet Sports car, and Zuber was just 0.002 seconds faster than di Grassi's Campos-run machine.

The Frenchman timed his run perfectly, setting the time with less than 60 seconds on the clock. He had a scare early on as he encountered a slow BCN car on the exit of the flat-out Turn 3, and had to pass it on the grass.

Vitaly Petrov (Campos) left it even later and set his time after the clock had zeroed, so the Russian will start fourth.

Karun Chandhok (iSport), who had spent much of the session second, fell to fifth in the closing moments. He was powerless to respond to the late improvements as he spun off overtaking the touring Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS) and stalled.noob

Mike Conway will start sixth for Trident Racing, ahead of championship protagonists Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) and Bruno Senna (iSport) - the latter almost half a second off the leading pace just when he needs to eat into Pantano's convincing points lead.

Senna had been P2 at the halfway point, but didn't improve his time enough to stay with the leaders.

Pastor Maldonado's Piquet Sports car was unable to be repaired in time for qualifying after his free practice shunt, so he will start Saturday's race from the back of the grid.

[phil1993]

Lucas di Grassi has opened his win account for the year in fine form at the Hungaroring today, taking the lead at the first corner and then holding on despite race long pressure from Andreas Zuber to take the chequered flag by just 0.7 seconds to put himself third in the championship, with Bruno Senna rounding out the podium and closing the gap on championship leader Giorgio Pantano.

The win was set up at the start when di Grassi made his now customary storming getaway, along with teammate Vitaly Petrov, while poleman Romain Grosjean was very slow to get started: the Brazilian went inside Zuber at the first turn to claim the lead and tore off down the road with the Russian playing wingman, while Senna's equally impressive start put him up four place to fourth on the first lap, just behind Zuber.

A lap later and Pantano was not waiting around, pulling a move around the outside of Grosjean at turn 4: the pair came together and the Italian was spun around before restarting at the back of the field, while the Frenchman came straight back to the pits to have a flat tyre changed, and Mike Conway managed to sneak through Karun Chandhok for fifth place in the melee.

The pitstop strategy was always going to be vital at this circuit, with many teams heading in early to get some clear air and make up some ground, a move that was short circuited largely by the number of other teams who had the same idea. In fact by the time that Grosjean came in for his more regular stop on lap 15 every driver bar Pastor Maldonado, who started last after failing to make qualifying yesterday but was now running first on the road, had their stops out of the way and it was a straight fight for the flag.

Leading that challenge behind the Venezuelan was di Grassi, who had Zuber all over his rear once more, but the Brazilian was equal to the challenge and held on for dear life, with Petrov losing out slightly at the stop following on behind them until lap 23, when he sadly retired with a mechanical gremlin, handing the potential podium position to Senna. Conway and Buemi were equally engrossed in battle, and it was anyone's guess who would come out on top.

But when the chequered flag dropped it was di Grassi who was punching the air in delight as he cross the line just ahead of Zuber, with Senna a further 3 seconds behind. Chandhok finished fourth after a smart pitstop allowed him to pull away from his earlier fight with Conway, while a smart strategy, a lot of fast laps and a late stop handed Maldonado a strong fifth place, a great reward for an impressive drive. Conway just held on to sixth ahead of Buemi, while Andy Soucek soaked up heavy late race pressure from Jerome D'Ambrosio to claim tomorrow's pole position.

And the new race winner had more reason to be delighted: while Pantano holds on to his championship lead he was unable to add to his 63 point haul, Senna pushed up to 54 points but di Grassi broke into the top three for the first time this year with 38 points, two ahead of his RDD compatriot Grosjean.

[phil1993]

Sprint race results:

1. S. Buemi
2. A. Soucek
3. B. Senna
4. S. Yamamoto
5. G. Pantano
6. J. Villa

[formulaonemadman]

dull races at hungary!!

[TwistedArmco]

Could have been worse in terms of boredom. At least the results were good, and the on-track action wasn't bad..

[formulaonemadman]

well, the most exciting part which we enjoyed was when the red car blew up and created a 007 smoke screen!!. and then all the smoke when infront and we couldn't see the driver. thats was the highlight.
at least that women who introduces it made us happy

[formulaonemadman]

shame today for pantano and senna-so unlucky

[swca92]

Crazy end to race.You see in this IndyCars but I've never seen cars run out of fuel in GP2 before.

[leomax]

spa,looks to me like it will give us good race,unlike uh previous races.

[phil1993]

1 Grosjean
2 Parente
3 Maldonado

8 Conway - will start from pole tomorrow
12 Senna
21 Pantano

[Zack]

unless something happen tomorrow a weekend to forget for isports ;)

i think will win Grosjean championship ...

[phil1993]

no - because he has 53 pts, Pantano 71. He needs 18 points and there are 23 available. And next race is Pantano's home race where he is usually strong

[TwistedArmco]

There are 27 points available, 20 in Monza, 7 tomorrow but you're right, Grosjean's chances are slim, as are Di Grassi's after Pantano's stupid brain-fade today. Di Grassi would have been on race 2 pole but for that. Anyway, Senna's day could have been worse.

In short that was an absolutely crazy race, possibly the best GP2 race I've ever seen. Anyone else think that Grosjean double-moved on Parente at Les Combes?? He forced him to the outside and pushed him onto the wetter line.