UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > GP2 Asia: Round 2

iSport dominate

After a three month break it was time for the second round of the 2009/2010 of the GP2 Asia championship, held once again at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi.

After the first weekend Davide Valsecchi lead the championship for iSport with nineteen points, Christian Vietoris was second for DAMS with nine points and Luca Filippi and Josef Kral of Mertius and Super Nova respectively were tied in third on eight points.

In the practice session on Thursday Filippi topped the standings with a time of 1 minute 54.146 seconds. Championship leader Valsecchi was second 0.285 seconds behind with Sam Bird of ART Grand Prix in third.

In qualifying former Stars of Tomorrow driver Charles Pic set the pole position time of 1 minute 52.497 seconds for Arden. He will be joined on the front row by another ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ driver Oliver Turvey of iSport. Turvey just beat his team mate onto the front row as Valsecchi started third with another Stars of Tomorrow driver, Jules Bianchi fourth on his debut for ART Grand Prix.

Pic had a disaster following his first pole position in GP2, in a race that was dominated by the two iSport drivers.

From second and third on the grid both Turvey and Valsecchi was ahead at the end of the first lap, and even from that early stage it appeared to be a question of which iSport driver would take the chequered flag first.

The top three quickly got into a rhythm with Bianchi and Javier Villa of Arden not letting them get to far ahead.

Villa was the first to pit, he was stuck in fifth place unable to pass Bianchi and made progress towards the podium places. He made his pit stop after only six laps and when he rejoined he promptly set the fastest lap.

Sixth place before the tops was Sergio Perez of Addax, however he stalled during his stop and was required to made a further stop, eventually crossing the line down in ninth place, but dropped to twelfth after a twenty five second penalty for ignoring waved yellow flags was applied.

This sent all the front runners racing to the pits to make their mandatory pit stops, with Turvey being the last to do so on lap ten.

He rejoined right in front of Valsecchi, but the Italian had the momentum to pass him round the outside half way around the lap and the two cars made contact and both skidded across the run off area with Valsecchi ahead and able to take the lead. Turvey instantly hit back at the end of the lap and regained the lead,

They rejoined still first and second but Villa, Bianchi and Pic in third, fourth and fifth were now much closer.

Behind Bianchi moved into the last podium place by pulling off an identical move on Villa as Turvey did moments earlier of Valsecchi.

Filippi was flying through the field after problems in qualifying, which saw him start down in twentieth place, and was now in sixth place, he made it fifth when he barged Pic out of the way, dropping the Frenchman outside the top ten.

Valsecchi had one last chance to take the win away from his team mate, when the safety car was called to retrieve the car of his ex-team mate, Alberto Valerio now at Coloni.

But Turvey held off his charging team mate to win his first GP2 win, from Valsecchi. Bianchi was third on his debut ahead of Villa in fourth, in what for the top four was a routine run to the flag.

Behind it was far from routine with no fewer than eight drivers holding one of the four points paying positions in the closing laps.

Filippi was on track for fifth place, until his car ground to a halt one the last lap. His ill fortune promoted DPR driver Giacomo Ricci to fifth and Alexander Rossi in the other Mertius to sixth.

Addax driver Giedo Van Der Garde should have been seventh, but he crashed late on, giving seventh to Marcus Ericcson of Super Nova, that was until Michael Herck attempt to take seventh left he Swede with broken suspension.

Ericcson retired but Herck continued for seventh place and a rare double points finish to the DPR team, was eighth for Ocean Racing Technology was Max Chilton, and he earned an unexpected pole for the sprint race.

Race two on Saturday took two starts to finally get going, but the fans in attendance did not seam to mind as it produced a great comeback drive by a future great champion, as all the major action turned away from the battle at the front.

The first start saw Javier Villa of Arden and Bianchi stall at the start and be forced to take the restart from the pit lane. Both had great drives through the field with Villa finishing eleventh and Bianchi just missing out on the points in seventh.

At the second time of asking we were underway. Chilton made a bad start from pole and was immediately jumped by Herck and Ricci who both motored away from the line to give Dave Price Racing their first time they have ever been first and second at any point of a race.

Valsecchi started seventh following his second placed finish, and used the completely vacant front row in front to help him gain third behind the two Dave Price Racing cars at the first corner, a place he would hold for most of the race.

In the closing stages of the race both iSport cars made their move. Valsecchi first passed Ricci to take second and then there was a sence of inevitability in the air as he closed in on Herck at the race of a second a lap, moving from third to first in the space of six laps to claim victory.

Herck then had no pressure from behind as he crossed the line in second, with Ricci following home in third.

Sergio Perez had an eventful race in his Addax. He made contact with the Super Nova of Josef Kral on the run into turn one on the opening lap, sending the young Czech driver into Filippi, Kral was out on the spot while Filippi limped home way down in seventeenth place.

Perez got away with it, bar a piece of flapping bodywork, and moved from his midfield position passing many cars to take fourth place.

Behind Perez there was a train of cars. Headed by Chilton followed by Turvey, Van Der Garde, Vladimir Arabadzhiev in the Rapax car, which is a renamed Piquet Sports for 2010. Behind Arabadzhiev was Rossi and Pic and Will Bratt in the Coloni.

Van Der Garde was involved in another accident. This time he tried an ambitious move on Arabadzhiev, tipping the Bulgarian into a spin and damaging his own car in the process. Arabadzhiev would finish tenth and Van Der Garde nineteenth.
As stated earlier both iSport cars left their charge late, and as Valsecchi was pushing towards victory, Turvey made his move on Chilton relegating Ocean Racing Technology driver to sixth place.

After Chilton had lost fifth he had to hold off a charging Bianchi. Bianchi had started from the pit lane and with a series of very brave late breaking moves, finding grip where there was clearly no grip to find, had worked his way up to seventh place. His charge was halted there has he was unable to pass Chilton, having used up most of his tyres with earlier passing moves.

After his sprint race win, and both fastest laps in the weekend Valsecchi has extended his championship lead. He has thirty five points and leads his team mate who is now second with sixteen. Despite a disappointing sprint race Rossi is still third with ten.

In the teams championship, iSport are looking untouchable, they have fifty one points and have an enormous lead over Dave Price Racing in a shock second place with just fifteen.

The series had now reached its half way point, the next round it in three weeks in Bahrain, followed by the series finale at the same circuit as a support for the Formula One Bahraini Grand Prix.

Written: Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:05:24