GP2 Series. Hungary
GIORGIO PANTANO AND JAVIER VILLA WIN POINTS IN THE SECOND
RACE IN HUNGARY
The Italian Repsol driver keeps his lead in the overall classification,
whilst the Spaniard is 16th
Race 1
A difficult day for the Racing Engineering and Repsol drivers.
In the long race on the Saturday at the Hungaroring Giorgio
Pantano was involved in an incident at the start of the race,
and Javier Villa was conditioned by his low grid position
after the problems he had the day before during the classification.
The race, a scheduled 42 laps, started cleanly with all the
cars getting away without any problems. Giorgio began well
from 8th position on the grid, and moved up two places in
spite of making slight contact with another car on the opening
lap. And so he found himself behind his big rival in the race
at Hockenheim, Romain Grosjean. The Racing Engineering &
Repsol driver immediately began to put pressure on the ART
driver, and he soon went off the track into an escape lane,
the Italian took good advantage of this mistake to pass him.
But when Grosjean returned to the track he touched the rear
end of Giorgio`s car and made the Dallara de Racing Engineering
spin. Giorgio had to wait a few seconds until he had enough
space between the traffic to get back in the race, but he
was in 22nd position behind Asmer.
So Racing Engineering then opted to change Giorgio`s pit
stop as it was the best chance of giving him some space for
a free run allowing him make up as much time as possible of
what he had lost. The car sponsored by Repsol started to speed
up the lap times and on lap four Giorgio was already 20th
and was closing in on Herck. On the tenth Giorgio was right
behind Filippi in 18th position, and on the following lap
the Arden driver lost control of his car and Giorgio recovered
another position. Six laps later the Italian was 16th, driving
behind his teammate Villa. Realising that Giorgio had a better
pace Javi did not stand in his way and let the other Racing
Engineering car through and on lap 18 the car number 12 was
15th. Giorgio then got close to Rodríguez, and was
soon past him and moving away from him but he was still too
far from the leaders to make up more positions, and so he
had to make do with 14th place at the end of the race, moving
over to let his teammate overtake him towards the end of the
race.
For Javier Villa the race was more or less disappointing.
He started in 18th position on the grid and lost four places
there as he was blocked in by the car in front of him as it
started very slowly, and at the same time he noticed, just
like yesterday, that his clutch was not working correctly.
Anyway Javi recovered quickly and moved up to 19th on the
second lap, and on the fourth was 18th and close to Filippi.
The Racing Engineering & Repsol driver used the same
race strategy with Javi as with Giorgio and he soon made a
pitstop, and like his teammate it was a quick and efficient
one, the team putting the driver quickly back on track. Javi
found himself following Rodríguez, who was 14th and
just 0.38 seconds behind him on lap 13. A small error on lap
17 made Javi misjudge a corner but he was not overtaken, and
he had his teammate Giorgio tucked in behind him - he was
allowed to pass a little later and so Javi was left in 16th
position. On the following seven laps Javi was not able to
get past Rodríguez, but the latter eventually succumbed
to the pressure, he span and so Javi moved up to 14th. Javi
was then in the same situation as his teammate, too far from
the leaders to move up in the classification, and so he concentrated
on finishing the race, he finished 13th after overtaking Giorgio
towards the end.
Race 2
Excellent result for the Racing Engineering & Repsol team
in the second race, the sprint around the circuit of the Hungaroring.
Giorgio Pantano and Javier Villa fought back from their positions
in the middle of the grid to finish 5th and 6th, and to win
three points for the team.
Starting 13th & 14th because of the results in yesterday`s
race the two Repsol drivers made a magnificent start overtakig
from the very beginning. At the end of the first lap Javier
was 8th and Giorgio was just behind him; the two having overtaken
several other drivers on the opening lap, and at the same
time taking perfect advantage of the spaces they found just
ahead of them, as D'Ambrosio and Chandhock had not done the
formation lap.
On the third lap Di Grassi and Conway`s cars, fighting for
third position, grazed each other and the Briton was put into
a spin, in a flash he was overtaken by, among others, Villa
and Pantano, who moved up into 7th and 8th places. The two
drivers of the cars sponsored by Repsol were moving in tandem
and got close to Yamamoto, a Japanese driver. At the start
of the 15th lap Javi went into the home straight a little
too wide and Giorgio overtook him, Zuber tried to do the same
but the Spaniard fended him off with a spectacular manoeuvre
at the end of the straight, where for a split second the three
cars – driven by Pantano, Villa and Zuber – were
alongside each other.
After the resolution of this interesting battle in favour
of the two Racing Engineering & Respol Team drivers, Giorgio
was 7th just over one second behind Yamamoto, and with Javi
following in his teammate`s wake, whilst the two got away
from Zuber. On lap twelve, the two Repsol drivers moved up
another position as Di Grassi was penalised with a 'drive
through', because of his previous incident with Conway, this
meant Pantano was sixth and so among the points.
During the next few laps the race situation became more stable,
with the two Dallara in formation always close behind Yamamoto,
although without quite being able to catch him, but comfortably
keeping Zuber and Kobayashi at bay behind them. With four
laps left Maldonado`s retirement, because of mechanical problems,
meant that both Giorgio and Javi moved up another place and
so were among the first six over the line, finishing 5th and
6th at the end of lap 28. Pantano won two points and mean
that he stays at the top of the standings, and Villa got another
point for himself as well as the Racing Engineering team,
which with today`s haul of three points is in a stronger second
place in the team champioship.
Today`s magnificent result, with the two drivers in the first
six in a race that looked more than complicated for them,
emphasises the excellent preparation of the cars by Racing
Engineering & Repsol, the only team that won points with
its two cars, meaning that at the same time the extraordinary
100% reliability record for the whole of the season is still
intact. Now, the GP2 series has a short summer break, it returns
in three weeks with the brand new race at the urban circuit
of Valencia. The Racing Engineering & Repsol team will
be hoping that the team`s two drivers once again finish among
the best.
Quotes
Giorgio Pantano >> 14th and 5th
>> First Race
“We made a good start and we moved up towards the leaders.
I overtook Grosjean when he made a mistake but he hit the
back of my car and the car span and sent me to the middle
of the pack. I tried to catch the others up but I could not
do anything."
>> Second Race
“First of all I want to thank Javi as he allowed me
to keep my position, even though today he was faster. After
what happened yesterday, we got the maximum number of points
that was possible when starting 14th, we won two."
Javier Villa >> 13rd and 6th
>> First Race
"I had more clutch problems. It began to slip on the
formation lap and I had to do it slowly, not being able to
prepare the start right. Owing to this the tyres were not
at the right temperature and I lost time at the beginning
of the race.
As is usual this season, we have a well-balanced car, as you
could see in the second half of the race, but with so many
problems little could be done with it."
>> Second Race
"I made a good start and managed to get into the fight
for 8th place. Then I was able to maintain a good rhythm in
the race, and it got even better in the second half. I am
convinced that I could have finished fourth but I stayed in
sixth position."
Official Results
>> First Race
1. L. DI GRASSI (CAMPOS) 1h:04:35.028
2. A. ZUBER (PIQUET SPORT) + 0.711
3. B. SENNA (iSPORT) + 3.611
4. K. CHANDHOK (iSPORT) + 19.046
5. P. MALDONADO (PIQUET SPORT) + 21.883
13. J. VILLA (RACING ENGINEERING) + 57.663
14. G. PANTANO (RACING ENGINEERING) + 1:01.492
>> Second Race
1. S. BUEMI (TRUST TEAM ARDEN) 42:39.084
2. A. SOUCEK (SUPER NOVA) + 7.798
3. B. SENNA (iSPORT) + 8.066
4. S. YAMAMOTO (ART GRAND PRXI) + 14.075
5. G. PANTANO (RACING ENGINEERING) + 15.766
6. J. VILLA (RACING ENGINEERING) +16.341
>> Overall Classification
1. G. PANTANO (RACING ENGINEERING) 65 points
2. B. SENNA (iSPORT) 58 "
3. L DI GRASSI (CAMPOS) 39 "
4. R. GROSJEAN (ART GRAND PRIX) 36 "
5. S. BUEMI (TRUST TEAM ARDEN) 34 "
16. J. VILLA (RACING ENGINEERING) 6 "
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