By the time the GP2 series kicked off in Bahrain on April 15, reigning champion Lewis Hamilton was already establishing himself as a star in Formula One after strong drives in Australian and Malaysia.
When the season began the championship favourites were Glock and Andres Zuber driving for iSport, Di Grassi and Michael Ammermuller driving for double champions ART and Bruno Senna and Adrian Zaugg driving for Arden.
That opening round in Bahrain was a disaster for one of them, Ammermuller. In an accident in the opening race of the season he would break his wrist and miss the next few rounds. When he finally did make his return in France he was very unimpressive and would eventually be moved back to World Series by Renault, replaced at ART by Sebastien Buemi and Mikhail Aleshin.
The winners on the opening weekend were Luca Fillippi and Nicolas Lapierre. Glock was second at this point with fourteen points, while Di Grassi had just four.
The second race of the season was in Barcelona, Spain. During this race Zuber had his first of many problems after qualifying on the front row, this time stalling.
The races were won by Senna, in only his third start since coming up from British Formula Three and Glock for the first of his five wins. This was also the round where Glock first took the lead of the championship with 31 points. Di Grassi scored two podiums and was up to fourteen points.
Round three was in Monaco; there is only one GP2 race in Monaco due to time constraints. It was won by Pastor Maldonado. In the championship Glock had extended his lead over Di Grassi, he was now ahead 34-18.
Round four in France was the race where Glock’s championship train left the tracks. In an unbelievable incident, the two iSport cars starting on the front row inexplicable drove into each other eliminating both from the race.
It also saw the scariest moment of the season. A huge accident involving Ernesto Viso on his return to the series saw his car roll upside down across a guardrail. After a freighting few moments Viso was eventually removed from his car with relatively minor injuries.
France will also be remembered for the return to the series of Adam Carroll. FMS had sacked their main driver Antonio Pizzonia and brought Carroll from his DTM exile.
The races were won by Giorgio Pantano and Javier Villa, who took advantage of the Sunday morning reversed grid for the first time this season. A bad weekend for Glock saw his title lead cut, while a good weekend for Di Grassi saw him move up to third in the championship. Their scores were 39-29.
Silverstone was home to the fifth round of the season. The winners were Zuber, who finally had some success from front-row qualifying. The sprint race was won by Carroll in only his fourth start since his return. Di Grassi used this race to take second place in the championship and close on Di Grassi to 39-37.
The European round in the Nurburgring was the sixth round of the season. Glock became the first man to win two races this season in the feature race; in the sprint race Villa did the same by taking his second win of the season. Glock now leads the title 53-47 over Di Grassi as we pass the half way point.
Round seven in Hungary saw the debut of Markus Niemela who arrived at BCN to replace Sakon Yamamoto who had been promoted to the Spyker Formula One team.
The race winners were Carroll and Villa, becoming the first man to win three races. Glock still lead the title chase although it was only 55-54.
In Turkey Di Grassi won his first and only race of the season on Saturday. Sunday’s race was won Glock to extend his lead to two points. 66-64.
Round nine in Italy will be remembered for a horrible crash involving Andres Zuber and Andy Soucek, that at the time I compared to the accident that cost Alex Zanardi his legs.
The races were won by Pantano in his home country and Glock to take his fifth win of the season. The lead Glock held over DI Grassi was eleven points at 78-67.
Belgium was a disaster for Glock he stalled in the feature race and was taken out of the sprint race before it even started.
The wins went to Lapierre and Soucek. Di Grassi was third in the sprint race following his reluctance to pass Soucek and Chandhok. With just one race to go Di Grassi had got the gap down to two points with the scores 79-77.
The final race in Valencia was the only race of the season held away from the Formula One circus. Di Grassi made a mistake and spun in to the gravel in the feature race and gave himself and impossible task on Sunday. Saturday’s race was won by Petrov, his first of the season. The last race of 2007 was won by Glock in dominate fashion.
The final standings show that Glock is the champion with 88 points he eventually beat Di Grassi by eleven points. Third place was jointly held by Pantano and Fillippi who have 59 points. The team’s championship was won by iSport with drivers Glock and Zuber scoring a total of 118 points.
We will now begin the countdown of the top ten drivers from the 2007 GP2 championship.
10. Pastor Maldonado
Pastor Maldonado was the victor in the most dominant performance of the season. At Monaco he topped every practice session, took pole and won the race. Pre Monaco he did not show much in the way of results so the Monaco result came as a shock to most people. After then he moved up the grid slightly and was a regular point’s scorer until he suffered and injury forcing him to miss the last few rounds. He ended the season in eleventh place in the championship.
9. Andres Zuber
So much was expected of Andres Zuber this season, in fact in my GP2 preview I predicted that he would be come the champion. He had a lot of bad luck during the season, including two stalls from the front row and then the accident with teammate Timo Glock of the start line in France. Because of his bad luck Andres fell along way behind Glock in the championship very quickly forcing him to play number two. He only took one win this season and failed to match his full potential.
8. Karun Chandhok
Karun Chandhok was the star of the season for many people. Driving the uncompetitive Durango car not much was expected of him, and he delivered very little for the first half of the season. Turkey was a turning point for him. He finished eighth in the sprint race giving him pole for the sprint race. In the sprint race he was leading and looking set for victory until he was taken out by Kazuki Nakijima. He eventually took his first win in the Belgium sprint race.
7. Kazuki Nakijima
Kazuki Nakijima had a solid season. He was involved in a few controversial incidents through out the season, most notably the crash with Chandhok in Turkey. He did not win a race in GP2 this season but he still did enough to earn himself a promotion to the Williams Formula One team when Alexander Wurz decided to retire.
6. Luca Fillippi
Luca Fillippi had an up and down season. He won the season opener in Bahrain but his season went down hill in mid-season, going through two consecutive races without scoring points which affected his challenge to Glock and Di Grassi.
5. Giorgio Pantano
Giorgio Pantano was one of only two paid drivers to start the season. The other, Antonio Pizzonia was sacked a short time into the season. Pantano was well worth his money, driving for the previously uncompetitive Campos Grand Prix team. He was able to take the team forward taking some wins and helping teammate Vitaly Petrov to a win himself. He finishes third in the championship.
4. Lucas Di Grassi
Lucas Di Grassi was in the championship battle right to the end of the season but the reason why he is so low here is because of his lack of wins and attempt to wins. One event that really unimpressed me was the Belgian sprint race when following the much slower cars of Soucek and Chandhok he did not attempt to pass and opted to remain third to secure the points.
3. Javier Villa
Javier Villa was the one of only three people to win three races this season. Admittedly all three of his race wins were in sprint races after finishing seventh or eighth in the feature race but a win is a win in the record books. If Javier can get his qualifying right in 2008 he can be more competitive in the feature race and could be a major player in the championship
2. Adam Carroll
Adam Carroll missed the first four rounds of the season, while in his DTM exile. When Antonio Pizzonia was sacked by FMS International they brought Adam in. Despite missing eight races he still won three races and ended the season in sixth place.
1. Timo Glock
Timo Glock is the GP2 champion after a dominant season so there is nobody else that could be number one. He won six races, double his nearest rivals in terms of wins, Villa and Carroll and five more that championship rival Di Grassi. Glock first headed the championship after round two in Spain and was never beaten until he became a deserving champion in the season finale in Valencia.
Written by Paul Crossling on Sat, 27 Oct 2007 10:47:15
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