Race 2
Timo Glock put on a clinical display of motor
racing precision to carve his way through the
field and claim his fourth win of the season in
race two at Monza, before comfortably
controlling the second half of the race to lead
Luca Filippi and Bruno Senna all the way to the
chequered flag. The win was set up by a solid
start, which saw poleman Ricardo Risatti hold
onto the top spot ahead of a storming Senna, who
moved up from fifth on the grid to second at the
first chicane ahead of Sebastien Buemi, a fast
charging Giorgio Pantano, Glock and Vitaly
Petrov, who had Filippi on his tail by the end
of the lap after blasting past Javier Villa,
while behind them Mike Conway spun at the
parabolica and was tagged by Adrian Zaugg, who
soon retired with a terminal car.
Pantano was not waiting for anyone as he
attempted to bring home his second consecutive
double win at his home track, powering by Senna
next time around on the front straight to put
himself behind the rookie race leader.
Unfortunately his patience was in short order on
the next lap as he tried to push through the
inside of Risatti at the first chicane: the pair
touched and the Italian was spun around,
dropping back to sixth place just in front of
his teammate before getting away again. With
Senna not quite up with the race leader he was
soon under even more pressure, this time in the
shape of Glock's iSport machine. The German was
looking for a way past but showing the patience
that Pantano lacked, while behind him Filippi
blew by Buemi into the chicane after picking up
a good tow through the parabolica, and with the
Swiss driver's teammate Lucas di Grassi having
fought his way up from 13th he had no choice but
to wave the title contender through into fifth.
Senna's luck ran out as the pair approached the
parabolica corner next time around, with Glock
blasting by and looking almost certain to add
another win to his collection now that Pantano
was outside of the points, with Filippi also
taking the opportunity to move up at Senna's
expense on the next lap at the tricky Ascari
complex. The inevitable happened one lap later:
Glock blasted into the lead on the front
straight, with Filippi and Senna barging their
way by Risatti at the first chicane on either
side before the long run to curva grande. The
Brazilian had a go at his rival into the turn
but left his braking a little too late: he was
soon sailing across the gravel and came out
ahead of Filippi, but had to cede the position
for cutting the corner.
Pantano hadn't given up either: he was sharply
through Buemi and back into the points, while a
fierce battle erupted behind him between Andi
Zuber and Karun Chandhok, with the pair swapping
positions lap after lap but neither driver
willing to concede the fight. Ahead of them
Risatti was falling backwards and was soon
passed by di Grassi, and then had Pantano on his
tail coming into the first chicane: under
pressure he messed up his braking and just
tagged the back of di Grassi before putting
himself into the wall and out of the race after
limping back to the pits. But the Italian wasn't
making life easy for himself: next time by he
missed his own braking point and ran straight at
the chicane, allowing Buemi to get back past:
the Italian was clearly faster and harrying his
rookie rival all over the track for the next six
laps before he finally succumbed to the pressure
at the second chicane when Buemi missed his
braking point and Pantano ran into his tailpipe,
spinning the Swiss driver out of the race but
breaking the Italian's front wing in the
process.
With Filippi catching Glock at the front but
unable to get into a position to challenge for
the position, his countryman had clearly decided
a little thing like a broken wing wasn't going
to slow him down: for lap after lap he refused
to come in for a new nose, hoping to hold on
over the closing laps for a point or two despite
being shown the black and orange flag. Zuber,
having finally shaken off the dogged challenge
from Chandhok, was in a position to get past the
ailing Campos car, but a big lock up at the
first chicane undid that work But out at the
front Glock had just eased away from Filippi,
with both drivers considering discretion to be
the better part of valour as they headed for the
finish line, Glock crossing it 1.8 seconds ahead
of Filippi as the chequered flag dropped. Senna
was the next driver by, a further 6.6 seconds
back but delighted to make an overdue return to
the podium, while di Grassi finishing fourth
after a storming drive to banish the
disappointments of yesterday's race from his
mind.
On the final lap Zuber managed to find a way
past Pantano to claim fifth position, but
Chandhok had no rewards to take home after
finishing 0.1 seconds behind Pantano, who just
held onto sixth, while Adam Carroll claimed the
point for fastest lap.And it was all smiles on
the podium as Glock claimed another win and, in
so doing, extended his lead in the championship,
leading di Grassi now by 78 points to 67 with
two weekends remaining this year.
Race 1
Giorgio Pantano has blitzed the
field from pole position to take an easy win in
race one at his home circuit of Monza, leading
Luca Filippi and Timo Glock home with a dominant
display of speed and verve.Despite slowing on
the final lap Pantano was greeted by the
chequered flag eight seconds ahead of his
countryman, who inherited second place after
Lucas di Grassi bizarrely slowed on the second
last lap, allowing the field through before
getting underway again and also handing title
rival Glock the final spot on the podium to
extend his lead in the championship.Pantano
easily held onto the top spot when the lights
went out after a strong start with no wheelspin,
while the rest of the field lit up their tyres
in hot pursuit. The order at the front of the
field was unchanged into the first chicane, but
behind then chaos reigned as Adrian Zaugg was
turned around by Glock as the cars bunched up in
the tight corner: Zaugg, Mike Conway, and
Olivier Pla were all out on the spot as the
remainder of the field struggled to find a way
past.
The
inevitable safety
car was called onto
the track, and the
front of the field
consisted of
Pantano, fellow
front row starter
Lucas di Grassi,
Kazuki Nakajima (who
sliced his way up
one place as Lesmo),
Vitaly Petrov, Adam
Carroll, Xandi
Negrao, Filippi and
Bruno Senna, with
Glock well back in
17th position.With
the stranded cars
removed the race
went live one lap
later, catching out
a number of drivers,
including Carroll
and Glock, who
thought they would
take the opportunity
to take a free
pitstop. Pantano's
restart was note
perfect, as was
Filippi's, with the
latter timing his
run on Negrao
perfectly to slide
up a position at the
chicane:
unfortunately he was
a little too fast as
he caught Petrov
unawares at the
Lesmo complex and
had to run wide to
avoid the Russian,
undoing his good
work.
Nakajima was soon in for his customary early stop, coming out ahead of Karun Chandhok to put himself at the front of the already-stopped queue. With Pantano setting fastest laps at the front of the field it opened the floodgates, with Senna, Filippi, Negrao, di Grassi and Petrov all pitting over the next few laps, the latter suffering a stuck tyre to undo his excellent qualifying performance.
With Pantano well ahead of the remaining non-stoppers his real challenger was still di Grassi, who was sixth on track ahead of Negrao and Nakajima and waiting for the stops to shake out. The Italian was still easily the fastest man on track, and there seemed to be little chance of anyone derailing the latest in a long line of victories at the track. But on lap thirteen Markus Niemala was very slow into the chicane with Roldan Rodriguez and Andi Zuber right on his tail: the Spaniard was tapped by the Finnish rookie and Zuber took his chance to get by both, but Rodriguez came back and the pair collided at the second chicane, spinning in unison with Zuber getting away again but Rodriguez beached on the high kerb, prompting another safety car period.
Pantano's engineer was immediately onto the radio to call him in: if the Italian was quick enough he would be able to re-emerge in the lead before the safety car found him, and when second placed Ricardo Risatti also stopped Pantano's life became even easier. With no one even close enough on track the Italian came out to slow up behind the safety car, with Risatti spinning behind him at Ascari on cold tyres, and Pantano's job was effectively done. When the race went live again Pantano was easily able to hold onto his lead ahead of di Grassi, Negrao, Filippi, Nakajima and Senna, but further back Glock's never say die attitude had pushed him up to ninth place, right on the tail of Chandhok and Andy Soucek, who was trying desperately to hold on to the final points paying position. Nakajima seemed to cut the chicane to get ahead of Filippi and hold station, but the action was to come further around the track.Carroll took a look at Sebastien Buemi before spinning oddly on the run down to the parabolica, but ahead of them Soucek fell to the pressure and ran wide at the long, fast corner, allowing Glock through but coming slowly back on track right in the path of Zuber, who had nowhere to go but into the nose of the Spaniard: as pieces of carbon fibre showered the circuit both drivers, though unharmed, were out on the spot, and the safety car made another appearance.Nakajima seemed to be caught out by the slowing cars and spun off track, dropping from fifth to tenth before finding his way back on track while the man he had been trailing made yet another great restart, with Filippi easily disposing of Negrao once again to put himself onto the podium behind di Grassi and Pantano. Glock was also on a charge, taking a look inside Senna at the first chicane before slicing his way through at the second one, and then taking Chandhok further around the circuit to put himself up to fifth.
The German soon picked up another
position when Negrao slowly made his way back
into the pits: the Brazilian was back out again
shortly after but his pace indicated a problem
that was to put him heartbreakingly out of the
points once again. The motorsport gods were
clearly upset with Brazilians today as, with one
lap remaining, di Grassi suddenly slowed to a
crawl as the rest of field gladly disposed him
before he could get going again, the mystery
ailment striking a devastating blow just as he
was looking to regain the lead in the
championship.One lap
later Pantano was greeted by the chequered flag
and a roar from his home crowd, who were equally
delighted when Filippi crossed the line to make
it a one-two finish for Italy. Glock took the
final podium after a superb drive was rewarded
beyond his wildest dreams, going some way to
banishing thoughts of previous bad luck earlier
in the season. Senna capped a strong day with
fourth position, just ahead of a storming drive
from Karun Chandhok, while behind him there was
a mad dash for the final points.
Javier Villa somehow managed to
shake off Sebastien Buemi to claim sixth place,
while behind the pair there was barely
controlled chaos: Ricardo Risatti claim the
final point, and tomorrow's pole, just ahead of
Markus Niemala, Nicolas Lapierre, Jason Tahinci
and Vitaly Petrov, with Pantano easily claiming
the point for fastest lap.And it was Pantano who
was soaking up the adulation as he got out of
his car in parc ferme, with the satisfied look
of a man who got exactly what he expected after
unwrapping his Christmas presents. With the pace
that the Italian has shown all weekend the win
was nothing more than he deserved, as he
continues down the path of a repeat of his
dual-win weekend here last year.
1. G. Pantano Campos Grand Prix 55:32.531
2. L. Filippi Super Nova International + 7.962
3. T. Glock iSport International + 9.681
4. B. Senna Arden International +13.572
5. K. Chandhok Durango +18.393
6. J. Villa Racing Engineering +19.179
7. S. Buemi ART Grand Prix +20.436
8. R. Risatti Trident Racing +25.100
9. M. Niemela BCN Competicion +25.604
10. N. Lapierre DAMS +26.156
11. J. Tahinci FMS International +27.113
12. V. Petrov Campos Grand Prix +27.897
13. K. Nakajima DAMS +66.156
14. L. Di Grassi ART Grand Prix +73.136
15. A. Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports + 1 lap
Retirements
H. Tung BCN Competicion 21 laps
A. Soucek DPR 17 laps
A. Zuber iSport International 17 laps
A. Carroll FMS International 17 laps
R. Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 13 laps
K. Hirate Trident Racing 3 laps
B. Garcia Durango 1 laps
A. Zaugg Arden International 0 laps
M. CONWAY Super Nova International 0 laps
M. MARTINEZ Racing Engineering 0 laps
O. PLA DPR 0 laps
Practice
Pantano shows ho much he likes Monza. Negrao
shows well in sixth but Roldan down in 21st.
Giorgio Pantano has started the weekend in fine style at
his home race by claiming the top spot on the timesheets in the last minute
of free practice at Monza, putting himself ahead of Luca Filippi and Adam
Carroll.Pantano's final lap was run in a time of 1:30.914, displacing his
Italian rival after a session long fight with a lap that was almost three
tenths faster than Filippi's best, with former team mate Carroll a further
two tenths back.The session began under typically clear Italian skies, with
temperatures hot but nowhere near the peaks of the previous two weekends in
Turkey and Hungary. With most of the teams running very low rear wings, and
all cars on the harder Bridgestone tyres, the initial challenge was always
going to be staying on the fast circuit while the tyres came to the drivers.
It was a challenge that Markus Niemala was unable to
answer: after leaving the pits he spun off track just after the first
chicane, finding the wall on the inside of the track and removing his front
wing before rolling back onto the track, bringing out the local yellow flags
and his session to an early end.Filippi set the early running with a first
flying lap of 1:34.082, but the times were soon tumbling as drivers picked
up tows from the other cars around them, working in conjunction as they took
it in turns to pull a fast lap. Xandi Negrao was soon on the top of
the timesheets after grabbing a tow from team mate Roldan Rodriguez,
with Timo Glock, Filippi and Carroll soon fighting it out for the top
spot.The session was being split in half by many of the teams, running
qualifying trim for one half and race trim in the other. For example, Glock
took on board a lot of fuel before heading out halfway through the session,
while Filippi, who had run a very high rear wing in the first half, dropped
his wing before heading out for the second half. The move clearly worked,
and the Italian had the top spot again 2 laps later.But it wasn't to last.
Pantano was soon faster, just, than his rival, and the fight was on for
bragging rights ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session. Filippi came
back with the first sub 31 lap at 1:30.914, picking up a nice tow but not
setting any fastest sectors: with under two minutes remaining it looked to
be enough, but Pantano went one better just as the chequered flag was
dropping to claim the top spot for himselfBehind the top three Lucas di
Grassi, Andi Zuber and Negrao all ran strong laps to keep themselves in
contention, while championship leader Glock was down in 11th after
concentrating on his race set up in the second half of the session. But with
the battle this fierce in free practice, qualifying promises to be a no
holds barred war for pole position later this afternoon.
|
position |
Driver |
team |
gap |
laps |
best time |
|
1 |
G. Pantano |
Campos |
- |
14 |
01'30"626 |
|
2 |
L. Filippi |
Super Nova |
00'00"288 |
16 |
01'30"914 |
|
3 |
A. Carroll |
FMS |
00'00"513 |
16 |
01'31"139 |
|
4 |
L. Di Grassi |
ART |
00'00"755 |
14 |
01'31"381 |
|
5 |
A. Zuber |
iSport |
00'00"840 |
15 |
01'31"466 |
|
6 |
A. Negrão |
Minardi |
00'00"872 |
16 |
01'31"498 |
|
7 |
M. Conway |
Super Nova |
00'00"913 |
16 |
01'31"539 |
|
8 |
S. Buemi |
ART |
00'01"012 |
15 |
01'31"638 |
|
9 |
N. Lapierre |
DAMS |
00'01"113 |
16 |
01'31"739 |
|
10 |
B. Senna |
Arden |
00'01"152 |
16 |
01'31"778 |
|
11 |
T. Glock |
iSport |
00'01"190 |
15 |
01'31"815 |
|
12 |
B. Garcia |
Durango |
00'01"212 |
14 |
01'31"838 |
|
13 |
K. Chandhok |
Durango |
00'01"266 |
15 |
01'31"892 |
|
14 |
A. Zaugg |
Arden |
00'01"276 |
15 |
01'31"901 |
|
15 |
K. Hirate |
Trident |
00'01"361 |
16 |
01'31"987 |
|
16 |
M. Martinez |
Racing Eng. |
00'01"403 |
16 |
01'32"029 |
|
17 |
V. Petrov |
Campos |
00'01"480 |
15 |
01'32"106 |
|
18 |
K. Nakajima |
DAMS |
00'01"490 |
17 |
01'32"116 |
|
19 |
J. Tahinci |
FMS |
00'01"685 |
12 |
01'32"311 |
|
20 |
H. Tung |
BCN Comp. |
00'01"770 |
18 |
01'32"396 |
|
21 |
R. Rodriguez |
Minardi |
00'01"838 |
18 |
01'32"464 |
|
22 |
R. Risatti |
Trident |
00'02"023 |
16 |
01'32"649 |
|
23 |
J. Villa |
Racing Eng. |
00'02"091 |
7 |
01'32"717 |
|
25 |
A. Soucek |
DPR |
00'02"296 |
16 |
01'32"922 |
|
26 |
N. Markus |
BCN Comp. |
- |
1 |
- |
Preview
Last season Georgio Pantano managed to record two wins at
this famous old track. This year Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi are
separated by a couple of points leading the championship. The Monza races
should provide us with some special moments. Roldan Rodriguez and Xandi
Negrao will be hoping to spoil any party plans the others have and both have
shown to be very quick so the track should suit
Time schedule
All times Italian
Friday Practice 11- 11.30pm
Qualifying 15- 15.30pm
Saturday Race1 15.00
Sunday Race 2 9am
|
