Gp2 Race 1 And 2 Results.

[DOF_power 0]

05/07/2008

Pantano storms to feature race victory

Giorgio Pantano has laid down a huge marker to the rest of the grid after exploding past his rivals to steal an incredible victory ahead of Lucas di Grassi and Karun Chandhok.

The Italian started from fifth on the grid, but kept his head while all around him the others were losing theirs, managing his tyres and timing his challenge to perfection to take the win from di Grassi, who looked certain to claim his first win of the season until Pantano took it from him with six laps to go and then sailed serenely on to the chequered flag.

Bruno Senna led the grid away well from pole position, with di Grassi easily muscling his way past Romain Grosjean into Stowe, but 3 laps into the race Senna made a mistake when he went too deep and undid all of his good work as his rivals streamed past: the Brazilian was soon back up to speed but with fierce battles all around him he had to fight hard just to hold position.

Kamui Kobayashi came in for his customary early stop, coming out into clean air and running a string of fastest laps to maintain his position at the head of the list of drivers who had stopped, but all eyes were on the battle at the front as di Grassi, Grosjean, Pantano, Andreas Zuber and Senna squabbled for a way by each other: Grosjean was the first of the front men to stop, coming out just ahead of the Japanese driver, with Pantano re-emerging on his tail a lap later and the two Brazilians narrowly avoiding contact in the pit lane and di Grassi holding on, just, to the top spot.

Unfortunately for Kobayashi his hard work was undone by a mechanical gremlin a few laps later, but ahead of him Pantano was piling on the pressure to Grosjean, who was locking up all around the circuit before finally circuming to the inevitable pressure and relinquishing second after banging wheels into Abbey: di Grassi was now 3.7 seconds ahead of the Italian but Giorgio was on a mission, running a string of fastest laps to put himself onto the rear wing of the Brazilian driver.

Behind them was another battle royale, with Zuber, Chandhok and Senna running like a train up to the rear of Grosjean, whose tyres were already worn out: with S

[DOF_power 0]

06/07/2008

Senna reigns in waterlogged Silverstone

Bruno Senna controlled the elements and his rivals to record a dominant second win of the season on a soaking wet Silverstone circuit this morning, taking the top spot on the podium ahead of Lucas di Grassi and Giorgio Pantano.

The Brazilian reigned supreme in a race which saw most of the field succumb to the extreme conditions in some form: a strong start and pressure on polesitter Luca Filippi handed Senna the lead one the first lap and he never looked back, building and then maintaining a solid lead to take the chequered flag by 8.5 seconds over his countryman.

The first few laps were chaotic, with Zuber bogging down from the front row at the start and bunching up the field causing problems further back: Senna, di Grassi and Pantano were effectively the only drivers to not run off the soaked circuit, pushing most of the regular point scorers into unfamiliar positions and forcing them to challenge drivers who they do not normally fight with in the dry.

Rain reappeared heavily halfway through the race, causing misery for much of the field but an amazing spectacle for the spectators: while Senna pulled away Grosjean was slicing through the field after stopping for a new front wing, with Vitaly Petrov and Andy Soucek running almost side by side for lap after lap, and Kamui Kobayashi also showing strong speed to try and make up for his disappointment from race one.

The race result wasn't clear until the chequered flag dropped: while Senna was clearly ahead of di Grassi at the end, Pantano pushed hard over the closing laps to put himself on the Brazilian's tail at the end of the race after watching his mirrors throughout the race and seeing them full of Mike Conway's car; the Briton just failed to get onto the podium at his home circuit while behind him Petrov won the battle over Soucek when the latter fell off track in the fight for fifth. The last place should have gone to Kobayashi only for Adrian Valles to spin unavoidably in front of him on the final lap, handing sixth to series returnee Davide Valsecchi.

The second podium in a row meant that Pantano has stretched his lead out to 50 points, ahead of Senna on 39 and S

[Rainmaster 7]

Bruno Senna impresses in wet conditions, excellent!

[mikathegreat2 2]

Pantano looks like he's gonna win the championship, that's cos of his experience with Jordan in 2004 but then again he did'nt with the championship last season!

[Null 0]

giorgio

[Null 0]

Sorry, that should have read Pantano was excellent! *ahem*

[mikathegreat2 2]

If you have a PS2 you could buy F104 & do a World Championship season with him in the Jordan & he's Nick Heidfeld's team mate in it aswell!

[Null 0]

yep, that was a team of hotties excellent drivers!

[Rainmaster 7]

Bah Pantano is pants, I hope Bruno beats him!

[Null 0]

Now that's not very nice is it

[Rainmaster 7]

Now that's not very nice is it

OK I'm sorry, Pantano isn't pants, but I still hope Bruno beats him

[mikathegreat2 2]

If Pantano is 2008 GP2 champion, he'll probs move to STR to replace Vettel who will move to Red Bull & replace DC!

[Null 0]

Sutil deserves to move up the grid somewhere though, he's shown this year he's a great driver

[Null 0]

But I won't exactly complain if Pantano goes to STR instead

[mikathegreat2 2]

Well Jordan were bought out by Midland who were bought out by Spyker at the end of the 2006 season who were bought out by Vijay Malia & re-named Force India so Pantano could be heading there & maybe Sutil will get a seat @ STR!

[The Rumble Strip 0]

It's true that the GP2 winner usually gets a F1 seat.

The shame is I wasn't impressed with Pantano first time round.