Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Contact Us | Site Map

Formula 1™   Fans Association

Fans of Grand Prix Racing

HOME| GALLERY| NEWS| FEATURES| FORUM| LINKS| ABOUT US

Coming into the weekend, I'm making my first confident GP2 prediction ever: Valsecchi will take the 2012 title. However, nobody will be thinking about the title at this point in the year: races 9 and 10 out of 24 are too early to consider the final standings. Equally though, with his lead over Luiz Razia, that was hardly a bold statement on my part.

Luckily I managed to find a qualifying replay, to see the first experience of the double-step compound gap in GP2 history.

Gutierrez' first lap, despite being the best of anyone, looked like a very ragged lap. However, both his lap and Valsecchi's behind him were compromised by yellow flags in the final sector after Dillmann spun at the chicane. Onidi headed up the timesheets.

Calado put the Lotus on top on what looked like a pretty average lap. Coletti went 12th, slowed in the last sector behind Gutierrez.

Gutierrez climbed to 9th, but his tyres were overused. Valsecchi similarly could only manage 7th, while Nasr took 18th. Van Der Garde couldn't improve on 5th place.

Josef Kral, who had waited for the first series of laps to finish, took 14th place on the soft tyres. Calado was pretty likely, therefore, to start on pole, unless Razia could put in a late lap on his softer tyres and push him across to the second grid slot.

Razia's fast lap was held up twice early on but he maintained a decent pace, with only 2 tenths to gain in the final sector, with a clear track. He finished the lap, amazingly, having not improved on his banker lap, and stayed 12th.

Leimer, also on fresher softs, beat his personal best in the first sector, and was only 4 tenths off pole heading into the final sector. He promoted himself by 2 places, up to 2nd. Richelmi and Chilton were dropped to 3rd and 4th respectively.

Coletti jumped 6 places on the harder tyres compared to his soft run, proving that many drivers were held up in traffic early on.

Leimer was again on a fast lap, already only 2 tenths from Calado's Lotus. He lost time in the final sector and failed to improve.

Guerin, Ocean's new boy, took 21st place and demoted Nasr to 22nd.

Calado took his first pole position, ahead of Leimer, Richelmi, Chilton, Van Der Garde, Onidi, Valsecchi, Coletti, Palmer, Berthon [10TH], Gutierrez, Melker, Razia, Ericsson, Cecotto, Kral, Crestani, Dillmann, Trummer, Gonzalez [20th], Guerin, Nasr, Leal, Haryanto, Teixeira and Serenelli.

Guerin, having qualified so well in his inaugural session, stalled at the start of the warm-up lap. He parked at the end of the pit lane, ready to start once the other 25 cars had passed the pit exit.

Calado pushed Leimer right off the track at the start, Calado maintaining the lead. Behind him, Leimer and Van Der Garde were fighting for second. Further back, Nasr was hounding the back of Cecotto. Conversely, Richelmi had fallen to 12th.

Leimer started biting chunks out of the fastest lap, closing all the time on Calado's rear wing.

Valsecchi took over Leimer's role as the fastest man on track, while Calado began to pull away from Leimer again.

Nigel Melker closed on Razia in the fight for 9th place, while Teixeira drove off the track and retired. Cecotto was then closing on Melker.

Serenelli, in 25th, was investigated for ignoring yellow flags. The stewards handed him a Drive-Through penalty.

Berthon and Crestani pitted, pulling out onto a clear track.

Calado pitted along with Leimer, and they left their boxes side by side. Leimer had to yield, but they fell into the Kral/Guerin battle.

Van Der Garde pitted from the lead, allowing Coletti through for the provisional lead. However, the real battle came when he left the Caterham box, to rejoin ahead of Calado, using Leal between them as a cushion.

Melker was penalised for speeding in the pit lane with a Drive-Through penalty, but it took a while to be confirmed

Berthon harassed the back of Valsecchi, distracting the championship leader from his forward charge. Palmer pitted for four new tyres.

Onidi wrestled his way past Chilton who found himself defenseless. Meanwhile, Gutierrez pitted from the lead but what was originally 14th place, where he rejoined.

Leimer was then under investigation for an unsafe release, for which he earned a Drive-Through penalty. He dropped behind Nasr and Palmer took the position as well. Leimer was then 13th, aiming now for the reverse grid pole.

Van Der Garde pulled out more of a lead over the Lotus behing him, Calado doing his best to overtake the Caterham.

Palmer took 11th place from Nasr dominantly into turn 4.

With confirmation finally through of Melker's penalty, Coletti was reeling in James Calado. Van Der Garde was maintaining a small gap between himself and Calado, and Coletti certainly wouldn't hinder Giedo's efforts, distracting Calado from the chase.

Palmer took 10th from Cecotto, promoted to 9th place when Melker took his penalty. Razia now held the all-important reverse grid pole, while Cecotto ran wide at the first corner under pressure from Nasr, who also overtook him later in the race. Gutierrez followed the DAMS through later in the lap.

Razia closed on Chilton in the fight for 7th place, forcing Chilton to lock up in his desperate defense against Razia.

Melker managed a double overtake of both Gonzalez and Cecotto for 12th place.

Gutierrez made a sudden dive to clear Nasr into the first corner for 10th place. Meanwhile, the other Lotus was looking increasingly set for 2nd place, 1 lower than his grid slot.

Chilton continued to struggle in 7th place, but Razia held 8th behind him, looking presumably for the pole position on Sunday.

Van Der Garde won, followed by Calado, Coletti, Valsecchi, Berthon, Onidi, Chilton, Razia, Palmer and Gutierrez. Behind the top ten were Nasr, Leimer, Ericsson, Melker, Gonzalez, Haryanto, Crestani, Cecotto, Guerin, Kral, Richelmi, Dillmann, Trummer, Leal, Serenelli and the retired Teixeira.

However, the boys involved in last-minute bumper cars were investigated after the race. This wouldn't affect the points.

As with the GP3 race earlier in the morning, the track had changed a lot since the GP2 feature race: the clouds were still floating over the circuit, having rained on the tarmac all night. The track was far cooler than it was on the Friday and Saturday, having been rained on all night.

Serenelli stalled on the warm-up lap, and started from the pit lane. Palmer broke down at the exit of turn 10 on the warm-up lap, and the start was subsequently aborted while the marshals tried to move the car. The remaining 24 drivers on the grid did another lap in formation, losing a lap from the race distance to make up for it. Palmer's car was craned away to a flatbed truck as the frontrunners came round turn 10 once more.

Nasr locked up into turn 4 of the warm-up lap, criticising Gutierrez for sudden, heavy braking. The DAMS car had a big flat spot on his right-front tyre.

Berthon took 2nd behind Razia, with Valsecchi briefly taking 2nd but sliding back into 3rd again. Both Lotus cars managed to overtake Van Der Garde, before Calado overtook Gutierrez, returning the favour from earlier in the lap. Chilton, Calado, Gutierrez, Van Der Garde and Nasr completed the points behind Valsecchi.

Cecotto cleared Gonzalez, making up for his part in the game of dodgems the day before.

Guerin, the rookie who had dropped a couple of places to 21st, was penalised for a jump-start. He would end up a long way back in 24th.Meanwhile Van Der Garde cleared Gutierrez on the outside of the first corner. Serenelli, a long way off the pack, set the fastest lap. Having done that, he promptly brought out the yellow flags by binning the Venezuela GP car in the gravel trap of turn 4.

Calado took the place from Chilton, while Nasr took Gutierrez. Nasr was followed through by Coletti.

Cecotto overtook Melker , pushing the Ocean very wide.

Onidi tried to overtake Gutierrez, but Cecotto overtook him, pushing Onidi into Melker. The collision resulted in Melker's front wing almost being torn from the car.

Melker pitted for his new nose, putting both Oceans at the back of the pack.

Ericsson earned a Drive-Through penalty for ignoring yellow flags, putting paid to any hopes iSport had of salvaging points after Palmer's early exit.

Gutierrez was coming under increasing pressure from Cecotto in the battle for 9th place, but as the second half of the race got underway the Lotus driver found his feet again and started pushing for 8th. Meanwhile Coletti cleared Nasr, leaving the DAMS clear for Gutierrez. Nasr tried to fight back, but the Lotus was through.

Out in front, Razia pulled out a second over a single lap against Berthon, taking a more commanding lead of the race. And, typically, as soon as I wrote that, Razia had a poorer lap and Berthon reeled him straight back in.

From nowhere, the sun had returned to the Barcelona circuit, adding more heat to the tyres that GP3 had already proved were easily worn out, one driver even running on the canvas in the early morning race.

Leimer overtook Gonzalez before the first corner, while Calado continued to close on Valsecchi. Razia, for one, would be hoping that Valsecchi started to fall away.

Cecotto dropped to 11th place, proving the tyres really didn't like his early ambitious driving. Dillmann, who he hit the day before, was carefully looking for a way past the Addax car. Dillmann completed the move on the pit straight, and Leimer took over the patrol of the diffuser of the Addax. Leimer managed to overtake Cecotto into the final chicane, taking 11th place, but the battle for the final podium step was stealing the show as Calado closed on the championship leader.

With 3 laps to go, Razia had the win guaranteed, likewise Berthon's 2nd, but Valsecchi and Calado were steadily reeling him in. Berthon's advantage lay in Calado: Valsecchi, despite Calado's lack of actual attempts, had to keep one eye in the wing mirror.

Leimer overtook Dillmann in the final corner, after Dillmann locked his brakes into the chicane.

Razia won, ahead of Berthon, Valsecchi, Calado, Chilton, Van Der Garde, Gutierrez and Coletti. Behind the points were Nasr, Crestani, Leimer, Dillmann, Cecotto, Gonzalez, Haryanto, Kral, Leal, Onidi, Richelmi, Trummer, Guerin, Ericsson, Teixeira and Melker. Serenelli retired, and Palmer failed to start.

Tufty