GP2 round 1 Sepang 2013

[skells22]

time for the 1st race thread for gp2.

time of race 1 = 3.15am gmt Saturday
time of race 2 = 4.15am gmt sunday

winners of last year race race 1 Razia race 2 Calado

who will follow Valsecchi as the gp2 champion?
Will we get rain?
and who will win the 1st two races?

some of these will be answer this weekend

[Kassai]

First round of GP2 this weekend, I think it is going to be a difficult race for the rookies with them not knowing the track, the car and often tricky weather condition in Malaysia. It is also the time to see where the new teams are in the development of their cars. My guess for the weekend are:

Contenders: Calado, Nasr, Leimer, Ericsson.
Outsiders: Coletti, Cecotto, Bird.
Keep an eye on: Venezuela GP Lazarus, Haryanto.


What do you think ?

[mllevy]

keep an eye on: Evans

[Armco Bender]

keep an eye on: Evans

+1

[BackmarkerUK]

For this incident Johnny Cecotto had his best time taken away, while Sam Bird was awarded a 3-place penalty.

[Peat]

http://youtu.be/du458jeJ2WI

A Venezuelan driving outrageously and receiving a meager penalty.

Where have we seen this before?

[Flavio Galtieri]

Originally Posted by Peat

http://youtu.be/du458jeJ2WI

A Venezuelan driving outrageously and receiving a meager penalty.

Where have we seen this before?

The proper response imho would have been to send Cecotto home for the weekend.

Appalling behaviour in what is meant to be the second tier series to F1. If Bird did block him that is no excuse. No wonder driving standards in junior formulae are so bad.

[skells22]

the pen has not been said about yet as there might be more action taken, i wait for gp2 own tweets before posting

[W.A Trichlorostyrene]

Not such a bad showing from the Catherham boys, aka the most underwhelming line-up in 2013 GP2. Ma Qing-Hua 20th and only 1.2 seconds away from pole. Not too shabby for someone having his first GP2 outing ever, and who never ever had one single complete open wheel season in his career. Also, decent showing from Sergio Canamasas, 12th and less than half a second away from pole.

I think that some people on this forum were a bit quick to write Canamasas off. Yes he showed some extremely poor judgement in his few GP2 outings last year. But he also showed some impressive flashes of pace, which sadly never translated to results because of his clumsy driving, and the penalties he earned as a result. If he calms down it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes a regular point scorer in 2013, with maybe the odd reversed grid podium(s) here of there.


Some horribly thick traffic in this session anyway, as the Pirellis apparently require a long "nursing" time before going on a hotlap run. And Sepang isn't a very short track itself, although the large amount of long, fast and flowing corners might have been a factor here.

Originally Posted by BackmarkerUK

For this incident Johnny Cecotto had his best time taken away, while Sam Bird was awarded a 3-place penalty.

We don't know how much Bird blocked him of course, but I can't help but wonder whether Bird would've gotten away with no penalty if Cecotto's move didn't draw the steward's attention on them both. From the TV footages alone you could see so many people getting their laps compromised by people slowly cruising on the racing line while being on their in/outlap.

[bella]

Originally Posted by W.A Trichlorostyrene

I think that some people on this forum were a bit quick to write Canamasas off. Yes he showed some extremely poor judgement in his few GP2 outings last year. But he also showed some impressive flashes of pace, which sadly never translated to results because of his clumsy driving, and the penalties he earned as a result. If he calms down it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes a regular point scorer in 2013, with maybe the odd reversed grid podium(s) here of there.

canamasas is one of those drivers who just happens to be fast sometimes. can he explain why, no. can he repeat it? sometimes, but only if the circumstances are exactly the same and even then he won't know how to. bless him, he does have pace you're totally right, but he doesn't know how to capture it or exploit it. sort of like maldonado, but ultimately slower and nobody's been able to figure out how to turn the timer switch on and off on his pace yet. nobody (except perhaps his engineer) was more surprised than snr. sergio when he bunged it on pole in hungary the other year in 3.5, and considering he'd spent very little time at the pointy end he did very well to hang onto a decent result from it.

that's my uneducated view anyway. sadly on here and out there, people have a tendency to write people off based on one moment of blonde driving, particularly if they're unknown quantities. if it's a name they're familiar with they'll make excuses as they should do but they're not so kind with strangers.

[skells22]

update, Cecotto DQ, gets to start 26th

[chunterer]

"Coletti, ya come aat, give yer awl. Wrell done!" (a Len Goodman)

Calaso, Nasr and Leimer have performed kind of as most people expected....

Evans sh1t hot, if he's on it this early, he will be a force this season after all then?

[promax]

Originally Posted by Armco Bender

+1

+2

[on_to_it]

Originally Posted by promax

+2

+ plenty more...

[Kassai]

Very nice and clever race from Leimer there. Calado and Nasr were tidy also and Coletti still has problem with tyre's conservation.

We will see tomorrow if Richelmi has practice his starts. Also Bird on the front row.

You guys were right about Evans

[Peat]

Felt the 2 tyre compounds added something much needed to the feature race format.

I think once people get a handle on them, the Hard onto soft strategy could work a bit better. The people starting on the hards stopped way way too early.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by Peat

http://youtu.be/du458jeJ2WI

A Venezuelan driving outrageously and receiving a meager penalty.

Where have we seen this before?

With those driving standards he'll probably be getting a Williams F1 ride in no time.

[on_to_it]

Originally Posted by Kassai

Very nice and clever race from Leimer there. Calado and Nasr were tidy also and Coletti still has problem with tyre's conservation.

We will see tomorrow if Richelmi has practice his starts. Also Bird on the front row.

You guys were right about Evans

Thanks, we were. The team took a punt on set up and got it wrong, so Race 2 will be very interesting.

[cds_uk]

Originally Posted by Peat

http://youtu.be/du458jeJ2WI

A Venezuelan driving outrageously and receiving a meager penalty.

Where have we seen this before?

To be fair he did apologise straight away and looked suitably sheepish about the entire situation.

[BtccLee]

Originally Posted by cds_uk

To be fair he did apologise straight away and looked suitably sheepish about the entire situation.

Whilst I feel is driving was simply unacceptable, that doesn't make it unexpalinable.

He had just beem "blocked" on a hot lap, all the adrenaline, and was probably very peeved.

Not right but there's another angle on all of the action...

[ptclaus98]

How in the world did Rossi not get a shot at filling in for Hua?

[ivanalesi]

The racing wasn't terribly exciting in the reversed grid, may be because of the start Coletti & Nasr had. There weren't drivers with huge tire problems and I thought Leimer would be overtaking at the end, but he blew it himself.

[p-matt]

Leimer has never been the most assured overtaker. Remember in Formula Master when he would dominate the feature race only to finish 6th or 7th in the sprint because he struggled to overtake

[Kassai]

Very good race. Nice win for Coletti and so unlucky for Palmer, he was the driver of the weekend in my view. Trummer also impressed me, I didn't thought he was as fast as that.

[BackmarkerUK]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

How in the world did Rossi not get a shot at filling in for Hua?

Because Rossi didn't take part in any practice sessions (preventing Rossi from competing), and MQH completed qualifying and the feature race (preventing Caterham from making a driver change).