UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > GP2 Asia Round 1: Dubai

Double for rookie Grosjean

The historic new frontier of Motorsport has begun. This weekend (Friday and Saturday) saw the debut of the GP2 Asia Series held at the Dubai Autodome, home of the four days of testing last week.

After four days of testing all topped by ART driver Romain Grosjean the result of the free practise session held on Friday morning were somewhat of a surprise. The fastest time went to Andy Soucek driving for DPR. If you read my preview of the championship published on Monday you will know I predicted Soucek would surprise many during this short championship.

He set the fastest time of 1:21.870 and was comfortably four tenths faster than Bruno Senna new driving for the iSport team. Third place went to Adrian Valles in the FMS, another driver I predicted to cause a shock, was three tenths behind Senna. Preseason pace-setter Grosjean could only manage fourth place with a time of 1.22.864 almost a second off the pace.

The session was due to last thirty minutes but was red flagged after only twenty due to a crash involving Luca Fillippi in his Qi-Meritus car.

Normal service was resumed in qualifying when, as expected; Grosjean put his car on pole. There was a dramatic end to the session as Hiroki Yoshimoto in the other Qi-Meritus car spun and brought out the red flag setting up a ten minute shootout for pole position.

Grosjean held his nerve and claimed pole after setting a time of 1:21.760 to line up 0.049 ahead on Senna. Morning pace setter Soucek starts third. After an incredible rebuild job from the Qi-Meritus team Fillippi was able to take part in qualifying despite extensive damage caused to his car in the free practice session, he will start sixth.

In the feature race held on Friday it was again Romain Grosjean that made history becoming the first ever winner of a GP2 Asia race.

After qualifying and testing it was not too much of a surprise to see Grosjean’s name at the top of the results but it was the dominance in which he did it. He lead virtually every lap of the race and beat Senna to the line by over twelve seconds despite backing off in the last few laps.

Vitaly Petrov could not make the start in his Campos car. He failed to set a time in qualifying due to a gearbox problem, but was still able to take his place at the back of the grid, however he pulled into the pits at the end of the formation lap and his car was not seen again.

Davide Valsecchi and Kamui Kobayashi driving for Durango and DAMS respectively were forced to start from the pit lane. Valsecchi stalled on the grid as the rest of the field prepared for the formation lap and Kobayashi starting right behind him was unable to steer around the stricken car and was also unable to take the start.

Motor sport experts say that “a race can not be won on the first lap”, but for Grosjean this race was won on the first lap. He got a good start from pole position and lead, behind Senna starting second was passed by Soucek and would be stuck running at the pace of the DPR man for the majority of the race allowing Grosjean to ease away.

At the end of just two laps of the forty-two lap distance the pit lane opened for drivers to make their mandatory pit stop. A queue of drivers headed by Christian Bakkerud in his Super Nova immediately headed in for their stops.

Back on the track Bakkerud came out ahead of Arden’s Sebastien Buemi. With Bakkerud on cold tyres Buemi had to attack to take advantage. When he made his move Bakkerud attempted to close the door but Buemi already had his nose inside tipping the Super Nova backwards into the wall to become the first retirement.

Grosjean stayed out and was one of the last to stop and was building up a huge advantage over Soucek who was holding Senna up in third. Behind them Fillippi was running fourth with iSport driver Karun Chandhok behind following a slow start.

Chandhok was one of the first front-runners to make his pit stop but it all went wrong for him as soon as he left the pits. He came out behind Armaan Ebrahim and on cold tires spun off at the first corner and lost a lot of time.

With Grosjean clear at the front all eyes turned to Soucek and Senna in the battle for second. Senna pitted first and rejoined in a clear track hoping to gain enough time to jump Soucek in the pit stops. Agonizingly for Senna it was not enough when Soucek made his pit stop he was still ahead.

When Grosjean made his pit stop he was able to stay ahead of the battle and was the leader of those to have stopped.

This left Fillippi leading the race. He had caught up to the back markers and started to lap them. He got past Trident driver Ho-Ping Tung without any problems, but next along the road was BCN driver Jason Tahinci. No matter what Fillippi did to pass Tahinci blocked him. For over a lap Fillippi was stuck behind until he decided to make his pit stop waving his arm angularly as he drove down the pit lane.

After all the pit stops had been made Grosjean lead from Soucek, Senna, Valles who had passed Fillippi for fourth during the pit stops because of all the time he lost stuck behind Tahinci. Yoshimoto had quietly risen up to sixth, Chandhok was down in seventh following his spin and Buemi was eighth.

Two other drivers had problems during the race Michael Herck was the only other retirement when his FMS stopped just after his pit stop and Marco Bonanomi destroyed his front wing when he stuck the back of the weaving Alberto Valerio in the Durango. Bonanomi pitted for a new wing and fresh tyres to have an attempt on fastest lap.

The final two point scorers swapped places when Chandhok has his second spin of the race while under pressure allowing Buemi to take seventh.

Senna was putting extreme pressure on Soucek but the Spaniard was defending well. The times they were recording were over a second a lap slower than everybody else in the top eight, showing how defensive Soucek was driving.
Eventually the inevitable happened when Senna was able to pass. The difference in speed was immediately obvious as he quickly disappeared in a vain attempt to close the gap to leader Grosjean.

Soucek could match Senna’s pace and his attention was forced to turn towards Valles who was now right behind and looking to take the final podium position from him.

He could not find a way past and Soucek completed the podium behind Grosjean and Senna. Valles had to settle for fourth, Fillippi was left ruing the name Jason Tahinci as he crossed the line in fifth. Yoshimoto was sixth, Buemi seventh with Chandhok eighth.

Once past Soucek, Senna was able to set the fastest lap, setting a time of 1 22.462 to take the extra point from Grosjean in the closing stages.

After the race Buemi was disqualfied after his car was found to have side skirts that did not conform to the technical regulations in post-race scrutineering. This promotes Chandhok to seventh and Super Nova driver Fairuz Fauzy to eighth.

This gave Fauzy pole for the sprint race, for finishing seventh Chandhok started second with Yoshimoto third due to finishing the feature race in sixth. So on the debut weekend of the GP2 Asia series, Asian drivers fill the first three grid positions.

The sprint race on Saturday morning saw a rare double win, a feat made even more impressive considering that it was Grosjean’s rookie weekend.

Starting from eighth on the grid following his Friday win he got help moving up by the early retirements of Valles and Fillippi.

Valles took an early lead from fifth on the grid but pulled off to the side of the track after less than half a lap.

On lap two it all went wrong for the Arden team. Buemi went off at the first corner and out of the race, and at the same time team mate Adam Khan pitted with a puncture. The safety car was brought out on track to remove the stricken cars of Buemi and Valles.

At this point Grosjean was fifth; he was helped by the retirement of Valles and had managed to pass Soucek and Senna at the start of the race.

While the safety car was out more drivers had problems. Marcello Puglisi of Minardi Piquet Sports and Kobayashi had a coming together eliminating both cars from the race and Herek was also forced to pit with a puncture.

The biggest name to retire was Fillippi who was running second behind Fauzy, after three laps behind the safety car he ground to a halt with a gearbox problem, promoting Grosjean to fourth.

On lap seven the safety car came in, and at the first corner Grosjean was on the move taking third aggressively from Chandhok.

Grosjean was then stuck behind Yoshimoto for a few laps but could not pass. Further back there was a battle going on between Bonanomi and Schlegelmilch which saw the Latvian punt Bonanomi of the road.

Both resumed but Schlegelmilch needed to pit for a new nose. When he left the pits he came out right ahead of Yoshimoto forcing him to take evasive action allowing Grosjean to take second.

With Grosjean now clear of Yoshimoto it was only a matter of time before he caught the leader Fauzy. It happened on lap sixteen. Fauzy made a small mistake and it was all Grosjean needed to take the lead.

The points scorers were; Grosjean, Fauzy, Yoshimoto, Chandhok, Soucek and Valerio.

Two more changes in points were to occur. After Grosjean had passed Yoshimoto, Chandhok was right behind him and would eventually pass him to take the final podium place. A few laps later Soucek ran wide at the last corner and spun dropping form fifth to seven after being passed by the two Durango drivers of Valerio and Valsecchi.

None of that affected Grosjean to won his second race in as many days, taking fastest lap as well to open out a huge lead In the championship. He was followed across the line by Fauzy, Chandhok, Yoshimoto, Valerio and Valsecchi.

In the championship Grosjean leads with nineteen points, Senna is second with nine. There is then four drivers tied for third place with six points, they are; Soucek, Fauzy, Yoshimoto, and Chandhok.

The next round is in Sentul, Indonesia and will be held on February 16th.

Written: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:09:55