GP2: Round 17/18 – Monza, Italy – 12/13 September
Feature race
Despite F1 qualifying taking place in hot conditions under gorgeous blue skies, the start of the GP2 feature race just an hour later was delayed by a downpour that left large sections of the Monza circuit underwater.
The GP2 race finally got underway 40 minutes late and ran under the safety car for the first five laps before it was judged to be safe to get underway. Even so, Piquet driver Alberto Valerio spun off at Parabolica on the opening lap behind the safety car, ending his race early.
It was little safer on lap 6 when the safety car came in. With tyres cold from the slow running, and the track still very wet, everyone was struggling to keep it together – and Sergio Perez lost it in the run down to the first turn, straying into some standing water that threw him off into the barier and ricochetting across the track before coming to a halt. Amazingly this didn’t trigger a massive pile-up despite the oncoming traffic badly unsighted by the spray, although DPR’s debutant Johnny Cecotto Jr spun across the grass further back and collect a polystrene hoarding.
Nico Hulkenberg was finding the wet conditions very much to his liking and was struggling; at the restart as the safety car came in he came close to straying off track at the Parabolica, and a few laps later hs did exactly that – running into the gravel and losing three plaes before getting back up to speed.
This was good news for pole sitter and race leader Vitaly Petrov, who had to score at least 3pts mroe than Hulkenberg to keep his GP2 title chances mathametically alive. But it wasn’t all going Petrov’s way, and he ran through the first chicane on the first lap under green and then came under increasing pressure from the clearly faster Giedo van der Garde as the race wore on and the track started to dry up. Time and again the pressure saw Petrov forced off track or to cut chicanes and there was a real chance of a drive-thru penalty, as many of the other drivers were getting penalised if they cut chicanes more then three times.
One of those to get a penalty was Alvaro Parente, whichfelt rather unfair as his chicane-cutting was mostly as a result of trying every trick in the book to get past Lucas di Grassi for third rather than the careless “can’t be bothered to make the turn” activites of the others. Parente – who had been the star of the early laps and made up huge ground in the wettest conditions – dropped back to 7th after the penalty and never recovered, and was subsequently handed an additional 25s penalty for speeding in the pit lane that meant also he lost his position on the front row for Sunday’s sprint race; Luiz Razia was the lucky recipient of the spring pole as a result..
Meanwhile the laps were running out, and most of the cars still had to make their mandatory pit stop and tyre change. They held out to the last minute in case the track dried sufficiently to allow a change to slicks, but in the end there was too much standing water and everyone piled in for fresh intermediates instead. Petrov was still trying to maintain the lead over van der Garde, when the iSport driver pulled off a tactical masterstroke and pitted a lap earlier than Petrov: the fresh rubber gave van der Garde a critical advantage on the next lap and when Petrov emerged from the pit lane after his own stop, he was starting at the back of the Dutch driver’s car.
Any chance Petrov might have had to mount a comeback were thwarted when Cecotto Jr strayed off track at the exit of the Lesmos, hit the barrier hard sent a tyre spinning down the track before coming to a stop in the middle of the circuit in a dangerous position that following cars had to swerve hard to avoid, forcing the race to be finished under safety car conditions.
Despite Petrov’s disappointment at losing the win, he did at least finish far enough ahead of Hulkenberg to keep the title alive. And as for van der Garde, he was revelling in delivering iSport’s first win since Monaco 2008.
Race result
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1h03m18.437s 2. Vitaly Petrov Addax + 2.320s 3. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering + 13.281s 4. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 14.370s 5. Edoardo Mortara Arden + 24.668s 6. Nico Hulkenberg ART + 24.967s 7. Javier Villa Super Nova + 34.057s 8. Luiz Razia Coloni + 40.584s 9. Davide Rigon Trident + 43.870s 10. Diego Nunes iSport + 47.665s 11. Alvaro Parente Ocean + 55.785s 12. Andreas Zuber Coloni + 1m09.511s 13. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet + 1m11.089s 14. Davide Valsecchi Addax + 1m11.994s 15. Daniel Clos Racing Engineering + 1m48.139s 16. Ricardo Teixeira Trident + 1 lap 17. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 1 lap 18. Johnny Cecotto Jr DPR + 1 lap 19. Karun Chandhok Ocean + 3 laps 20. Michael Herck DPR + 3 laps Not classified: Luca Filippi Super Nova 18 laps Sergio Perez Arden 6 laps Pastor Maldonado ART 6 laps Alberto Valerio Piquet 0 laps
Sprint race
With Luiz Razia confidently blasting away from pole position and staying in front to the chequered flag and become the 10th different winner in GP2 2009, the focus of the sprint race was all about the GP2 championship battle between Nico Hulkenberg and Vitaly Petrov. All Hulkenberg had to do was finish in front of Petrov, and the title was decided in his favour.
Javier Villa stalled on the formation lap and started from the pit lane, and Edoardo Mortara got bogged down at the start which opened up a glorious opportunity for Lucas di Grassi to weave through on the insdie line and muscle Hulkenberg aside going into the first corner for second place. But more importantly for the title, Hulkenberg held off Petrov’s own lunge around the outside meaning that the running order for the first laps was Razia, di Grassi, Hulkenberg and Petrov.
A safety car made an early outing after Diego Nunes’ attempt to overtake Dani Clos ended in a violent crash: Clos defended his position, forced Nunes out wide onto the grass – and Nunes spun, collecting Clos who rolled in the gravel trap and ended up upside down, necessitating the appearance of a crane to remove the wreckage. Both drivers walked away, though.
After the restart, Petrov was clearly quicker that Hulkenberg in the long sweeping corners but Hulkenberg was better and later on the brakes, leading to stalemate despite some fierce battling. It briefly looked as though Hulkenberg had made a mistake through the Parabolica on lap 14 when he went into a full-on power slide, but Petrov was having a major moment of his own and went off the track altogether, ploughing through the gravel. By the time he got back on the tarmac, he’d been passed for 4th by Jerome D’Ambrosio and the GP2 title was effectively decided there and then,
D’Ambrosio did offer Petrov a late opportunity to retake the spot when he misjudged his run into the first chicane and had to take to the escape road, and then had to judge whether or not retaining the position would get him handed a drive-thru penalty from the hyperactive marshalls.
Otherwise it was a relatively quiet race: Sergio Perez’s sprint race lasted no longer than his feature race after he crawled to a half during the early safety car; Mortara’s race ended when he ran across the incredibly high kerbing on the first chicane while battling with Giedo van der Garde, which ripped off all the barge boarding from the underside of the car; Andreas Zuber’s front wing also incurred the wrath of the kerbing to a lesser extent later on Michael Herck ended up spun sideways in the middle of a chicane after being caught in the outside of a three-wide battle into the turn; Johnny Cecotto Jr had another late-race retirement after a slow spin through a chicane left his rear wheels beached in the gravel; and Pastor Maldonado lost grip into the Parabolica and ran through the gravel trap at speed before meeting up with the tyre wall.
But the key headline without doubt was Nico Hulkenberg finishing ahead of Petrov and thereby securing the GP2 title, a week ahead of the final race of the GP2 Europe season in the Algrarve – making Hulkenberg the first driver ever to secure the GP2 crown with a round still to spare.
Race result
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Luiz Razia Coloni 35m12.921s 2. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering + 2.576 3. Nico Hulkenberg ART + 4.955 4. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 7.374 5. Vitaly Petrov Addax + 7.92 6. Giedo van der Garde iSport + 8.687 7. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet + 9.133 8. Davide Rigon Trident + 13.395 9. Davide Valsecchi Addax + 24.809 10. Javier Villa Super Nova + 25.492 11. Alberto Valerio Piquet + 26.254 12. Karun Chandhok Ocean + 33.526 13. Michael Herck DPR + 35.32 14. Ricardo Teixeira Trident + 59.622 Retirements: Pastor Maldonado ART 19 laps Johnny Cecotto Jr DPR 18 laps Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 18 laps Luca Filippi Super Nova 15 laps Andreas Zuber Coloni 11 laps Alvaro Parente Ocean 6 laps Edoardo Mortara Arden 6 laps Sergio Perez Arden 1 lap Diego Nunes iSport 0 laps Dani Clos Racing Engineering 0 laps
GP2 championship standings
The championship is decided, leaving the Algarve a formality – or an exhibition race.
Pos Driver Points 1 Nico Hulkenberg 90 2 Vitaly Petrov 68 3 Lucas Di Grassi 57 4 Romain Grosjean 45 5 Pastor Maldonado 36 6 Giedo van der Garde 33 7 Jerome D'Ambrosio 29 8 Alvaro Parente 27 9 Luca Filippi 24 10 Sergio Perez 22 11 Javier Villa 22 12 Roldan Rodriguez 21 13 Andreas Zuber 20 14 Edoardo Mortara 19 15 Alberto Valerio 16 16 Kamui Kobayashi 10 17 Davide Valsecchi 10 18 Karun Chandhok 10 19 Luiz Razia 8 20 Diego Nunes 6 21 Davide Rigon 3 Pos Team Points 1 ART Grand Prix 126 2 Barwa Addax Team 113 3 Fat Burner Racing 57 4 Super Nova Racing 46 5 Telmex Arden 41 6 iSport 39 7 DAMS 39 8 Piquet GP 37 9 Ocean Racing 37 10 FMS International 20 11 Durango 10 12 Coloni 8 13 Trident Racing 3 14 DPR 0
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