UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > GP2: Round 7

Di Grassi and Buemi win

Round seven of the 2008 GP2 championship came from the Hungaroring in Hungary. With only three rounds left after this one every point was vital for the championship contenders. Going into the round Giorgio Pantano is still comfortably ahead for Racing Engineering he has sixty-three points and is clear of iSport driver Bruno Senna with forty-eight and Romain Grosjean in third with thirty-four for ART.

In an unusual move for GP2 teams all the drivers that raced last time out in Hockenheim are still in the series, and what is even more surprising is that they are all with the same teams – a first for GP2 this year.

Andres Zuber put his Piquet Sports car at the head of the tables in practise as he was 0.023 seconds clear of Pantano in second. Lucas Di Grassi of Campos was third 0.116 behind Zuber with Grosjean third.

The other Piquet Sports car driver by Pastor Maldonado crashed heavily and as a result he missed qualifying.

Grosjean was fastest in qualifying earning him pole position and another vital two points in the championship battle. In one of the closest qualifying sessions ever Zuber will join him on the front row with a time just 0.082 seconds slower. Di Grassi starts third 0.084 behind Grosjean and just 0.002 off Zuber’s pace.

Championship leader Pantano will start seventh joined on row four by his nearest rival, Senna.

Di Grassi crossed the line first to take victory in the feature race but Senna was the big winner as championship rivals Pantano and Grosjean clashed.

Grosjean started from pole but got a very bad start and was already down to fifth by the first corner. In contrast Pantano got a good start from eighth and was up to sixth. Zuber lead into turn one with Di Grassi right behind, Zuber then ran wide to give Di Grassi the lead.

Vitaly Petrov also passed Zuber after his mistake to make it a Campos 1-2 in the early stages, Zuber was followed by Senna in fourth then Grosjean and Pantano.

Half was round the first lap Pantano made his move on Grosjean. When Grosjean ran wide Pantano passed round the outside but did not leave enough room to pull back in ahead and clipped the front wing of Grosjean’s car and spinning off as a result.

He rejoined at the back while Grosjean was continued losing many, many places before pitting for repairs. This was outside the pit window and could not count as his mandatory stop. Pantano eventually fought back to finish fourteenth while Grosjean finished seventeenth.

On lap five Petrov made a mistake allowing Zuber to make an easy pass and regain second place.

Pantano pitted as soon as the pit window opened hoping to find some clear track to close in his rivals but it did not work as he came out behind Arden driver Luca Fillippi.

Mike Conway of Trident was running fifth and was the first of the front runners to pit. In the following laps Senna, Petrov, Chandhok and Zuber all pitted before Di Grassi came in on lap fifteen.

Di Grassi rejoined ahead of Zuber but he was in second place overall, because up ahead was Maldonado who had started last and by not pitting had taken the lead. The Piquet Sports team kept him out as long as possible as he was running 0.7 seconds a lap faster than Arden’s Sebastien Buemi who was in eighth place and the more laps he ran the greater the chance he could score points.

It worked perfectly as when Maldonado pitted right at the end of the pit window he rejoined in between Chandhok and Conway in fifth place. This gave Di Grassi the lead back, from Zuber and Senna third. Petrov had retired so Buemi was up to seventh and Andy Soucek was eighth for Super Nova.

So on a day when one Renault test driver struggled at the back the other, Di Grassi, took victory and moved ahead of Grosjean in the championship despite missing the first three events of the season.

There was no other passing moves in the closing stages so Zuber was second, Senna third, Chandhok fourth, Maldonado an incredible fifth after starting twenty-sixth on a track that is very difficult to overtake on. Conway was sixth, Buemi seventh and Soucek eighth.

The Sprint race was won by Buemi after he got start but it was not good enough to beat Soucek from pole and Soucek moved into an early lead.
The best start was made by Di Grassi who, starting eighth, moved his way up into fourth on the opening lap, while Pantano and Villa moved to just outside the points positions.

Di Grassi ruined his good start when he attempted to pass Conway at turn one and ended up clipping the rear of his car. Conway recovered but he was way down the order and eventually finished eleventh. Di Grassi received a drive-thru penalty and he eventually finished tenth after passing Conway cleanly late in the race.

Maldonado moved into third place when Di Grassi took his penalty, with Senna fourth, Sakon Yamamoto fifth for ART and Pantano sixth after Villa let his championship chasing team mate pass.

Grosjean was demoted to the back of the grid for the incident on the opening lap of the feature race, and he was moving up the field. That was until he met Alvaro Parente in his Super Nova. After a few laps of following Grosjean attempted a pass but punted Parente into retirement.

At the front the order only changed when Maldonado suffered an engine failure promoting Senna onto the podium and Villa into the points.

Senna was free to put pressure on Soucek on the last lap and with better traction he had a run on him and entered into a drag race to the line. Soucek won the drag race and beat Senna by just 0.088 seconds as they followed Buemi across the line.

Yamamoto was fourth, Pantano fifth to reduce the reduction of his championship lead, and Villa was sixth.

In the championship; Pantano still leads moving his total on to sixty-five points. Senna is just seven behind on fifty-eight, and Di Grassi has thirty-nine and is in third place.

The next round is the brand new Valencia circuit. A few GP2 drivers competed in a GT race there last week including Conway and Trident team mate Ho-Pin Tung who won the race. They were joined by Pantano and others, but crucially Senna was the only one to drive a single-seater there as he took part in the Formula Three test session.

Written: Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:52:16