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18 Aug 2009, 11:52 (Ref:2523633) | #1 | ||
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GP2 - Valencia!
Early start to the thread for a couple of reasons...
Grosjean moving upto to the Renault F1 seat makes the GP2 points situation, interesting.... Assuming that's it for him in GP2 for now, that makes Hulkenberg's life substantially easier at the top of the table! Can anyone mount a sustained challenge now that ART have hit the sweet spot? Surely only Petrov, Di Grassi and maybe Maldonado have any chance at all over the last 6 races championship wise, with a handful of others still capable of nabbing wins. |
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20 Aug 2009, 18:08 (Ref:2525150) | #2 | ||
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Will Grosjeans exit potentially lose value of Hulkenbergs title?
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20 Aug 2009, 20:07 (Ref:2525200) | #3 | |
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I haven't been that impressed by Hulkenberg until now, but this season he is leading and he's not supposed to be leading. I think it's clear, he's beating Maldonado quite often on speed... It's just an excuse for Grosjean or anyone else who might jump into F1 for not beating Hulkenberg. Since 2007, I thought that Grosjean is the better driver, beating him as teammate, but not now.
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20 Aug 2009, 20:56 (Ref:2525219) | #4 | ||
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tbh, i have never been that impressed with Grosjean. He seems to lose interest halfway through a season after strong starts. The Hulk made a slowish start but now looks unstoppable.
Who's got Romain's seat? Valsechhi? Subscribed to Eurosport this week, so hoping to catch all the action live (got fed up with *hoping* someone would stream it each time....). |
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20 Aug 2009, 21:22 (Ref:2525229) | #5 | ||
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Grosjean's lucky. He's been rescued from the opportunity to lose the GP2 Series by a Formula 1 drive
I reckon Petrov was on target to beat him too, but now we'll never know. Valsecchi's a good choice for Barwa Addax. |
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21 Aug 2009, 09:02 (Ref:2525421) | #6 | |||
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Whether he would be able to wrest the points away from Hulkenberg who is on a roll, I don't know, but it wouldn't have been for the lack of trying. It will be very interesting to see how Valsecchi goes in a truly top team. He has shown flashes of real ability on and off, but really needs to do it consistently for the rest of the season to make his mark. I'm intrigued to see if anyone can step up to the plate and challenge Hulkenberg now. He has the form and the points advantage but there is a real opportunity for one of the chasers to knuckle down and maybe force the issue a bit. Lot of guys have reputations to rebuild or make a name for themselves by winning a race or two. One of those certainly is Maldonado. He does well on tricky street circuits and must be in a state of flux after Nico found his feat and generally whupped him the last few rounds! I'm not sure he's finished yet but it is difficult for him now. I-sport will want to get some better results, this has been their poorest season almost since the category started. Supernova will want to continue the great from from Hungary with Filippi and Villa. |
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21 Aug 2009, 15:42 (Ref:2525610) | #7 | ||
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Hülkenberg - Petrov - Di Grassi the top three on qualifying, Malsonado 9º, Valsecchi 12º. Good rides by Pérez and RodrÃ*guez, 4º and 5º respectively in the qualy.
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22 Aug 2009, 11:52 (Ref:2526047) | #8 | |||
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If Lucas has one of his poor set up days he could end up as a 'Trulli' Perez has done a tremendous job, dark horse for the win, if not today then a sensible drive to get a good starting position for Sunday maybe. |
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22 Aug 2009, 13:58 (Ref:2526081) | #9 | ||
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- Forza Ferrari (61 , 64 , 75-77 , 79 , 82-83 , 99-04 , 07-08) - Forza Schumacher (94 , 95 , 00-04) |
22 Aug 2009, 14:07 (Ref:2526083) | #10 | ||
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live timing down?
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22 Aug 2009, 14:15 (Ref:2526087) | #11 | ||
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Oh my god! That Spanish Fork-lift driver is more dangerous to marshals than any race cars. Idiot!
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22 Aug 2009, 15:06 (Ref:2526102) | #12 | ||
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Had it not been for Hulk's bodge at teh first corner, that would have been dreadful.
Good run by Perez. |
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22 Aug 2009, 21:59 (Ref:2526288) | #13 | |
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23 Aug 2009, 08:26 (Ref:2526461) | #14 | ||
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peat is about right, The first 2 were miles quicker, Hulk would've been quicker still if he was on his own!
Petrov went up in my estimations massively with that drive. Incredibly strong and defensive drive, great maturity. Perez best of the rest by a long long way too. Shame for Di Grassi, but as I had forgotten that there are actually 3 more weekends after this one, that's still a lot of points up for grabs. Parente drove well but (very well to avoid harpooning the errant Di Grassi when his problem started on the quick sweeps back to the start finish areas!!) But what happened to Rodriguez? Went from monstering Di Grassi to slipping wide and then after allowing Alvaro past, slipped away? Expected more from Valsecchi it has to be said, but then he would've finished higher if it wasn't for that barging match with Mortara was it near the end? Maldonado somehow or other sneaked 8th place so he would've started as favourite for this morning's round, if not for the fact that he was excluded for a floor problem on the car (too low on one side?) Kobayashi has been promoted to 8th, but whilst that would normally mean a more than 50% chance of a win, his form has been so poor that he will still probably struggle!! |
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23 Aug 2009, 08:33 (Ref:2526464) | #15 | ||
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I fancy Mortara for this one!!
Eh?? what the.... Filippi went for broke and squeezed Kamui, result: Luca spins into the wall on outside of T1 and Kobayashi's front wing hanging off!! Zuber, Di Grassi, Valsecchi and Van Der Garde all out, not all linked though! SC.... Hulkenberg upto 3rd somehow, guessing he made most of first corner shenanigans. |
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23 Aug 2009, 08:42 (Ref:2526466) | #16 | ||
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Lap 2, Kobayashi continues with his wing, Rodriguez blows it and that my friends has effectively handed the race to Hulkenberg so early on I fear.
I'll revert to just watching the race now!! Nooooo I can't, restart Parente gets punted off by Mortara into 1 Mortara getting a bit of a reputation I think, he's been consitently 'stubborn' in GP2 and WSR this season? |
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23 Aug 2009, 08:58 (Ref:2526473) | #17 | ||
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Oh dear, ANOTHER SC!!
Poor Parente's car welded into the barriers at the end of the long back 'straight', after he had failed to bring it back to the pits. Hulk leads Perez, big gap pre SC to Mortara, Petrov in combative mode, D'Ambrosio, Perera, Nunes, Rigon, Chandhok, Maldonado. Well it was..... |
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23 Aug 2009, 10:12 (Ref:2526529) | #18 | ||
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I think Parente is one of those drivers about whom one can say that if he didn't have bad luck he wouldn't have any luck at all...
Meanwhile, I hope people are noticing that Sergio Perez notched up another pair of good results. He is a real talent and still very young. |
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23 Aug 2009, 17:46 (Ref:2526791) | #19 | ||
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Completely with you on both points strider.
Parente has been a frontrunner, well around the top of the guys behind Barwa and ART all season, but hardly has any points on the board. He's got to be in for a couple of wins in the last 6 races surely?? Perez has shown great form at Silverstone a track which he knows, Nurby, although the results didn't reflect that, and now Valencia. Looks like it's starting to come together for him which is a bit late in the season but I reckon he and his management were always looking at a 2 year effort. Learn it in year one and try and get some wins and then go for the title in year 2? Wonder if he'll renew his aquaintance with Barwa Addax for next year? I bet it's on the cards and he'd be an instant title contender. Back to today's 2nd race, some dreadful and rather desperate driving from many. Kamui Kobayashi might as well kiss goodbye to his F1 prospects and Toyota deals after that! I know he must be frustrated as hell because DAMS have gone backwards again this season, but seriously what was he doing titting about during and after the first SC period still with his front wing hanging off??!! Filippi and Kamui were a bit daft at turn one of the race and in all the commotion Hulkenberg must've been thinking 'what are all these idiots doing, they should know better by now!' |
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23 Aug 2009, 17:56 (Ref:2526799) | #20 | |
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perhaps the apparent lack of clean overtaking moves means it's not as easy to overtake in gp2 as people like to think?
hulkenberg's sudden pace makes me feel a little uncomfortable. i don't believe he as a driver is a whole second faster than his nearest opponent. and when you're calling out dams for not having pace remember d'ambrosio is still 7th in the championship and didn't do too badly for himself today |
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23 Aug 2009, 18:04 (Ref:2526806) | #21 | ||
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Well Jerome benefited a great deal from the carnage caused by the shoddy driving to move up the field early on in the main bella. From what I saw those who got near him breezed by and it wasn't for the lack of trying on his part!!
The cars are certainly more difficult to overtake in, but still 'easier' than F1. The circuit isn't helping that's for sure! I'm in agreement with you about Nico's pace. It reminds me of Lewis in '06 and Rosberg in '05 and Glock in 07, in terms of some kind of super sweet set up complemented by a really hungry driver making the most of it. The upshot being that almost everyone else has no chance! |
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23 Aug 2009, 18:16 (Ref:2526810) | #22 | |||
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Do you know of people who think it's easy to overtake in GP2 then? I must assume they haven't seen the main series in 2008 or '09... EDIT: Maldonado was disappointing again this weekend, his standard performance, a mix of making mistakes and showing great pace when it's too late. If he could dial out the errors I think he'd be a star, unfortunately though, I don't think he'll ever be any different. Of my other favourites, I can't believe Parente's continued bad luck, hopefully he's done enough to be able to return next year. It was nice to see a good result for D'Ambrosio, even if it was just 4th in the sprint race... |
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23 Aug 2009, 18:30 (Ref:2526817) | #23 | |
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i can't help but think it's similar to the way grosjean and petrov were miles ahead at the start of the season then mysteriously dropped back and lost pace in relation to everyone else.
d'ambrosio wasn't the fastest, certainly, but he finished in the points which is more than kobayashi managed and thus my point about the championship standings remains. kobayashi is quite a long way back in comparison, so i don't think it's as simple as saying the team are shoddy and need to pull their finger out just cause kobayashi is driving like a romanian cabbie! |
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24 Aug 2009, 18:00 (Ref:2527426) | #24 | ||
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Well it could be said that DAMS perhaps cannot get a handle on the main series car like they can on the old one used in Asia?
But DAMS were generally closer to the pace last year and in '07 with the current car weren't they? Has there been any race engineering changes that might have upset the progress of either driver? Particularly surprised abut Jerome, but then I thought he would've been a title contender last year after several clear signs of talent in '07 and he wasn't and he then had a very average Asia series compared to Kamui as well? Something's not right, because both drivers have shown in the past that they are front runners when the car works (or is it when they like the car?!!). I also noticed Zuber returned to his wayward self again after some strong middle season drives? It really looks like the end of the big time potential for poor Javi Villa as well. Filippi isn't the driver people thought he was 2 years ago, but he's generally wiping the floor with Javi at Supernova. Don't know what that says about either of them to be honest!! |
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