Sprint race
Roldan disappointed at Silverstone
Adam Carroll won a thrilling GP2 sprint race at
Silverstone on Sunday for the FMS International team.The Northern Irishman,
who was starting only his fourth GP2 race of the season after replacing
Antonio Pizzonia, overcame front row starter Pastor Maldonado with a
brilliant pass around the outside of Abbey corner, after tracking him for
the first 16 laps.Carroll, who started third, also had a wheel-to-wheel dice
with Lucas di Grassi around the opening corners, only seizing second place
at Maggots.From there, Carroll chased down Maldonado, putting pressure on
the Venezuelan for lap after lap. Maldonado, who won at Monaco this year,
finally wilted at Abbey with 10 laps to go, but held off a charging Kazuki
Nakajima to keep second.
Nakajima passed di Grassi with a forceful move at Copse,
and set fastest lap in his ultimately fruitless pursuit of Maldonado.Di
Grassi finished fourth, despite late pressure from Mike Conway. Yesterday's
winner Andi Zuber finished sixth. Luca Filippi was seventh, losing a place
to Zuber when he spun exiting Copse, but he stayed clear of Giorgio Pantano,
who passed teammate Vitaly Petrov on the final lap.Series leader Timo Glock
was on a great charge from the rear of the field, and was on the fringe of
the top 10 when Adrian Zaugg punted him off at Priory, ensuring his fourth
straight non-finish
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Adam Carroll FMS International 36:41.162
2. Pastor Maldonado Trident Racing + 4.868
3. Kazuki Nakajima DAMS + 5.241
4. Lucas Di Grassi ART Grand Prix + 13.748
5. Mike Conway Super Nova International + 13.904
6. Andreas Zuber iSport International + 14.281
7. Luca Filippi Super Nova International + 19.485
8. Giorgio Pantano Campos Grand Prix + 21.842
9. Vitaly Petrov Campos Grand Prix + 24.170
10. Bruno Senna Arden International + 24.333
11. Roldan Rodreguez Minardi Piquet Sports + 35.385
12. M.Ammermuller ART Grand Prix + 37.752
13. Karun Chandhok Durango + 38.926
14. F.Albuquerque Racing Engineering + 40.083
15. Ho-Pin Tung BCN Competicion + 43.496
16. Jason Tahinci FMS International + 52.194
17. Borja Garcia Durango + 55.437
18. Alexandre Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports + 57.342
19. Adrian Zaugg Arden International + 57.604
20. Andy Soucek DPR +1:00.390
21. C.Bakkerud DPR +1:03.276
22. Javier Villa Racing Engineering + 2 Laps
Race 1
Zuber takes win. Roldan gets point for
8th and pole position for Sundays Sprint. Negrao has another DNF.
Andreas Zuber took his first GP2 win of the season at
Silverstone with a commanding drive from pole position The iSport driver has
had dreadful luck so far this year, but he was able to secure his second
career victory in the category just ahead of Mike Conway.Zuber led away from
pole at the start, heading Conway (Super Nova), Lucas di Grassi (ART),
iSport teammate Timo Glock and Kazuki Nakajima (DAMS).Behind them, Adam
Carroll (FMS) had lost a place at the start to Michael Ammermuller (ART),
but he won it back at Maggots.Carroll then passed Nakajima for fifth at
Vale, and closed in on the di Grassi/Glock fight. On lap four, Glock got a
run on di Grassi, who defended into Abbey, so the German simply drove around
the outside of him.Di Grassi ran wide on the exit, allowing Carroll to
pounce for another place, and the Ulsterman wasn't far away from passing
Glock as well.Zuber's biggest scare came after his pitstop. He stopped a lap
later than Conway, and the Super Nova driver had used his fresher tyres to
close the gap.When Zuber rejoined, Conway was right on his tail and pushed
him hard for the next lap, before the leader was able to pull away and romp
to victory.
Third place would change hands on numerous occasions, as
first Glock dropped out of contention with alternator failure and then
Carroll lost a certain podium finish when he was caught speeding in the
pits.His drive-through penalty promoted Nakajima to third, who had got ahead
of di Grassi after making an earlier stop.Behind di Grassi, Luca Filippi
finished fifth from 11th on the grid for Super Nova, while Magny-Cours
feature race winner Giorgio Pantano went out when the engine of his Campos
Grand Prix entry blew up.Despite his penalty, Carroll finished sixth, ahead
of Pastor Maldonado (Trident ) and Roldan Rodriguez (Minardi/Piquet).
Nicolas Lapierre was lucky to walk away from his DAMS car when an apparent
front suspension failure sent him into the tyre wall at Copse. He was
uninjured but his car was wrecked.Glock set the fastest lap of the race,
although he will not get the bonus point for it as he was not classified as
a finisher. That goes to Zuber instead.
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Andreas Zuber iSport International 54:21.118
2. Mike Conway Super Nova International + 1.815
3. Kazuki Nakajima DAMS + 16.916
4. Lucas Di Grassi ART Grand Prix + 28.365
5. Luca Filippi Super Nova International + 36.481
6. Adam Carroll FMS International + 47.392
7. Pastor Maldonado Trident Racing + 48.300
8. Roldan Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports + 51.681
9. Vitaly Petrov Campos Grand Prix + 54.214
10. M.Ammermuller ART Grand Prix + 58.845
11. Bruno Senna Arden International + 58.955
12. Karun Chandhok Durango + 1:00.810
13. Javier Villa Racing Engineering + 1:01.243
14. Adrian Zaugg Arden International + 1:02.947
15. F.Albuquerque Racing Engineering + 1:05.102
16. Sakon Yamamoto BCN Competicion + 1:06.357
17. Ho-Pin Tung BCN Competicion + 1:07.999
18. Kohei Hirate Trident Racing + 1:22.338
19. Jason Tahinci FMS International + 1:23.255
20. Borja García Durango + 4 Laps
Not classified:
Timo Glock iSport International 26 laps
Nicolas Lapierre DAMS 19 laps
Giorgio Pantano Campos Grand Prix 17 laps
Alexandre Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports 8 laps
C.Bakkerud DPR 1 laps
Andy Soucek DPR 0 laps
Qualifying
Zuber claims pole. Roldan 9th Negrao
again disappoints.
Andi Zuber has claimed his long overdue first GP2 pole in
blustery conditions at the Silverstone circuit today, pushing hard
throughout the session as championship leader Timo Glock spun off on his
outlap on fresh tyres while trying to outdo his teammate.
Zuber constantly improved his times, with his best lap of
1:28.043 grabbing pole with just a few minutes remaining in the session. The
time was two tenths faster than Mike Conway and Lucas di Grassi could
manage, despite last minute charges from the pair.
The conditions played a big part in the session today,
with strong winds blowing the cars around and low temperatures obliging the
drivers to push hard from the outset to get heat into their tyres.
Xandi Negrao and Vitaly Petrov were caught out by
this in the opening minute, both men spinning harmlessly before rejoining
the circuit. Bruno Senna, however, was less lucky: a big spin at Becketts
saw the Brazilian slide through an advertising board before stalling his
car, ruining his best chance of a strong time at the circuit he knows
intimately.
Conway was the first man to set a sub 29 time, which was
immediately improved upon by Glock before Zuber warmed up and put both men
in their place. The pair pushed hard to get back on top, but a small off for
the Briton and traffic for the German meant they were going to have to wait
until their second set of tyres to post any improvement.
Glock was the first man back on track after taking on new
rubber, but he pushed a little too hard on his outlap, spinning right in
front of championship rival Luca Filippi, who was still on track after
losing the first half of the session with a technical gremlin, and pulling
up in front of the wall at turn seven.
The German was bitterly disappointed at the mistake,
gesturing in vain to the marshals for a push, but his car was in an unsafe
position and he was gently persuaded from his car, just as Andy Soucek spun
harmlessly at the same turn.
It was the chance his teammate had been waiting all season
for, and he pushed hard to stay ahead of Conway, who was equally determined
to claim pole at his home track.
But when the clock ran out it was Zuber who was punching
the air in delight, while Conway and di Grassi were left thinking of what
may have been. Kazuki Nakajima, Timo Glock and Adam Carroll rounded out the
top six positions, just ahead of Michael Ammermuller and Karun Chandhok.
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Andreas Zuber iSport International 1:28.043
2. Mike Conway Super Nova International + 0.213
3. Lucas Di Grassi ART Grand Prix + 0.278
4. Kazuki Nakajima DAMS + 0.565
5. Timo Glock iSport International + 0.628
6. Adam Carroll FMS International + 0.716
7. M.Ammermuller ART Grand Prix + 1.042
8. Karun Chandhok Durango + 1.137
9. Roldan Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports + 1.182
10. Nicolas Lapierre DAMS + 1.200
11. Luca Filippi Super Nova International + 1.204
12. Sakon Yamamoto BCN Competicion + 1.333
13. Giorgio Pantano Campos Grand Prix + 1.428
14. Pastor Maldonado Trident Racing + 1.479
15. Vitaly Petrov Campos Grand Prix + 1.552
16. Ho-Pin Tung BCN Competicion + 1.603
17. Adrian Zaugg Arden International + 1.652
18. Borja Garcia Durango + 1.653
19. F.Albuquerque Racing Engineering + 1.706
20. Kohei Hirate Trident Racing + 1.856
21. Javier Villa Racing Engineering + 1.922
22. Andy Soucek DPR + 1.988
23. Alexandre Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports + 2.227
24. C.Bakkerud DPR + 2.514
25. Jason Tahinci FMS International + 2.845
26. Bruno Senna Arden International + 7.684
