| Giorgio Pantano
returned to his winning ways in GP2 by triumphing in Saturday's
feature race at Magny-Cours.However, the event was overshadowed
by Ernesto Viso's horrifying accident, from which he escaped
remarkably unscathed.The race started with a bang when iSport
teammates Timo Glock and Andi Zuber, who had annexed the front
row, contrived to drive into each other within yards of the
start. Zuber's car was sent flying,
landing on top of Glock's head. Both were out, with Glock the
first to report to the medical centre in a neck brace.That
intra-team farrago paled into insignificance when Viso's Racing
Engineering car was launched over the back of Michael
Ammermuller's ART machine with sickening force on the run
between the Adelaide hairpin and the Nurburgring chicane. It
vaulted over the concrete wall, somersaulting as it did so, just
missing the bridge parapet and four marshals but slamming
through an advertising hording.The safety car was soon on track
as medical crews tended to Viso. This prompted a flurry of
pitstops on lap two, with all bar three cars pitting.The narrow
pitlane sparked chaos, with the order before the stops being
Bruno Senna leading from Lucas di Grassi, Pantano and Pastor
Maldonado.Meanwhile, Nicolas Lapierre ran over one of DAMS' tyre
changers, fortunately without serious injury.The cars exited in
the order Pantano, di Grassi, Senna and Maldonado - with Senna
in particular getting compromised as he had to lock up to avoid
collecting di Grassi.Just as they rejoined, the red flags were
thrown to ensure Viso's removal to hospital was as swift as
possible.After what seemed like an age, the race restarted with
Kohei Hirate and Karun Chandhok, neither of whom had pitted,
leading the way.
Normal service was soon resumed, with Pantano
pulling away up front from di Grassi, Maldonado and Senna.
Behind them, Luca Filippi charged up to fifth, removing Super
Nova team-mate Mike Conway with a biff at the hairpin.
Senna lost his fourth place to Filippi soon
after when he ran wide at 180. Maldonado then hit major gearbox
downshift problems, tumbling down the order in the latter
stages, losing places to Filippi and Senna straight away. It was
Filippi's turn to hit trouble, and his reduced pace allowed
Senna to close in. The Brazilian nicked the podium on the very
last lap, when Filippi slid wide under braking for the hairpin
and Senna cheekily nipped through. Vitaly Petrov finished fifth,
ahead of Adrian Zaugg, Javier Villa and Lapierre, who took pole
for the reverse grid race tomorrow despite a huge spin at
Estoril.Conway recovered to ninth, with Maldonado hobbling home
10th. Briton Adam Carrol, returning to the series with the
FMS International team, was disqualified from the race on lap
three. Roldan Rodriguez at least had some good news in having
got a point for fastest lap.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Pantano Campos Grand Prix 1h52:32.513
2. Di Grassi ART Grand Prix + 8.777
3. Senna Arden + 22.476
4. Filippi Super Nova + 24.585
5. Petrov Campos Grand Prix + 40.162
6. Zaugg Arden + 40.699
7. Villa Racing Engineering + 41.206
8. Lapierre DAMS + 48.246
9. Conway Super Nova + 52.431
10. Maldonado Trident Racing + 55.890
11. Yamamoto BCN Competicion + 59.032
12. Garcia Durango + 1:01.960
13. Soucek DPR + 1:04.692
14. Tung BCN Competicion + 1:08.394
15. Tahinci FMS + 1:27.103
16. Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports + 1 Lap
17. Nakajima DAMS + 1 Lap
Not classified:
Driver Team Laps
Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports 31
Hirate Trident Racing 31
Bakkerud DPR 18
Chandhok Durango 6
Glock iSport 0
Zuber iSport 0
Ammermuller ART Grand Prix 0
Viso Racing Engineering 0
Fastest lap: Rodriguez, 1:23.405 on lap 39
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