GP2 Imola

[Gaz]

Apparently the whole day so far has been a farce and the mechancial woes have continued.

Theres a short report on crash.net concerning it but it doesn't sound good for the races tomorrow. I think its going to be more a case of who's left at the end rather than whos quickest I'm afraid which is a HUGE shame.

[sceptic]

Best coverage is at www.formula-2.net/2005_01_index.php

[Mekola]

I found it in the Atlas forum, but later I found it more defined in a newsgroup:

GP2 IMOLA - RACE 1 QUALIFYING

1 Nicolas Lapierre Arden 1:33.505
2 Giorgio Pantano SuperNova 1:33.510
3 Jose Maria Lopez DAMS 1:33.577
4 Ernesto Viso BCN 1:33.852
5 Heikki Kovalainen Arden 1:33.927
6 Scott Speed iSport 1:33.984
7 Adam Carroll SuperNova 1:34.122
8 Nelson Piquet HiTech 1:34.183
9 Gianmaria Bruni Coloni 1:34.187
10 Juan Cruz Alvarez Campos 1:34.658
11 Nico Rosberg ART 1:34.763
12 Neel Jani Racing Engineering 1:35.020
13 Ryan Sharp DPR 1:35.101
14 Ferdinando Monfardini Durango 1:35.129
15 Olivier Pla DPR 1:35.303
16 Alexandre Negrao HiTech 1:35.672
17 Alexandre Premat ART 1:35.704
18 Can Artam iSport 1:36.016
19 Borja Garcia Racing Engineering 1:36.162
20 Mathias Lauda Coloni 1:36.380
21 Fairuz Fauzy DAMS 1:37.591
22 Sergio Hernandez Campos 1:38.739
23 Clivio Piccione Durango 1:39.148
24 Hiroki Yoshimoto BCN No Time

[flexible-flyer]

this is a great shame that mechaincal errors are thrown here there and everywhere. its ruining it somewhat. hopefully the cars will last in the race. and hopefully as the season gets into full swing, there will be no talk of troubles witht ehcars.

30 minutes a session still isnt what this series deserves though...all about track time i guess. maybe a few more paul ricard tests will need organised...?

[strider]

Originally Posted by sceptic

The electrical problems were caused by a new part which the teams haven't used before, hence the problem couldn't have been ironed out in testing.

They are going back to the spec they used in the Barcelona test for this afternoon, so everyone will be able to run more reliably.

So they went back to something they had used in testing... Nuff said.

[LongJohnSilver]

Does anyone know what time the races are? Im hoping to catch them on the formula-2.net feed.

[LongJohnSilver]

Actually I just found it on formula-2 14:30 on Saturday and 11:30 on Sunday, local time I hope.

[Dontchange]

I found this on fomula-2
IMOLA SCHEDULE

FRIDAY 22nd APRIL

09:30 Free Practice (30 minutes)
15:30 Qualifying (30 minutes)

SATURDAY 23rd APRIL

14:30 Race 1 (37 laps)

SUNDAY 24th APRIL

11:30 Race (17 laps)

[Kicking-back]

Decent race that - well done to Heikki Kovalianen!

A few reliability glitches to be ironed out, but in many ways that added to the drama

[flexible-flyer]

weird but good race. very mucha lottery towards the end though. pantano looked to be dominating but his car stopped....lopez was never far off. carroll leading with 4 laps left only to pit for a third time for whatever reason.....

cars seemed to be going off left right and centre though! i think everyone was off the road at some stage bar pantano and carroll. even heikki was on the grass once.

anyway congrats to kovalianen. the pressure of being preseason fave by many doesnt seem to ruffle his feathers too much.

[flexible-flyer]

i thought rosberg was 8th and premat 7th?

[Marcel ten Caat]

TV coverage was poor. In fact it was awful.
Martin Haven and Gareth Rees tried their best, but the camera's kept on missing the action and the race info (classification, gaps, laps remaining) was only projected a few times. And when they showed them, it was for a few moments.

Hard to follow the race, easier to follow the standings of the 24 hours of Le Mans while being there.

Despite the above the race itself was ok, several drivers unfamiliar with the car and that resulted in a number of spins, missed turns and more like that.

Poleman Nicolas Lapierre didn't even take the start and since the Arden pitbox was full of white powder it seems his engine or something with a lot of fluids failed. At least he has some points for his pole

What i also noticed was the safety in the pitlane, or the lack of it.
Several times crews and/or other people had to jump aside to get out of the way of an incoming car. "Highlight" of this was Enrique Scalabroni not looking around while crossing the pitlane, luckily for him Giorgio Pantano who had just been sent away by his team managed to hit the brakes in time and stopped just in front of Scalabroni, before continuing his race.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Official result on TV was:

Kovalainen
Lopez
Speed
Bruni
Carroll
Jani
Premat
Rosberg
Pla
Viso
Hernandez
Lauda
-not finished, but classified-
Pantano
Piquet
Piccione
Artam
Fauzy

[flexible-flyer]

yeah the tv coverage was awful for the f1 qualifying aswell. it was almost asif the dircetor was trying to avoid showing minardi cars actually, and reading other peoples posting, who have live practice sessions on friday, its the same. rubbish coverage at imola.

hopefully tomorrows second gp2 race will bring more action though. the ART cars were invisible today but now they line up 1-2 on the grid! neel jani will find it tough defending from a no doubt very upset adam carroll. bruni looked racy too. i would expect the likes of adam and gianmaria to go for broke in this sprint race.

[DanFlag]

Time

1 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN) Arden International 1:02:15.9
2 Jose Maria Lopez (ARG) DAMS 6.8
3 Scott Speed (USA) iSport International 17.7
4 Gianmaria Bruni (ITA) Coloni Motorsport 18.4
5 Adam Carroll (GBR) Super Nova 21.5
6 Neel Jani (SUI) Racing Engineering 43.0
7 Giorgio Pantano (ITA) Super Nova 46.9
8 Alexandre Premat (FRA) Art Grand Prix 48.6

[Marcel ten Caat]

I doubt that's correct as Eurosport clearly showed Pantano off in the grass at the last lap.

[Zurich]

Woeful TV coverage (camera work as well as graphics).

But the commentators were also awful. They should have spent the weekend learning to identify the cars/drivers, it's no use learning once the race starts, I can do that from home.

The rules are farcical. Why on earth are there mandatory pit-stops if the cars don't have to change tyres? And why did Carroll have to come in a third time? (I assume one of the stops was a penalty, but some on-screen confirmation wouldn't have gone a miss)

Eurosport didn't bother to hang around long enough to address any of the multitude of questions their coverage left unanswered.

The racing was actually good though. If they sort out the coverage, the commentators, the absurd pit-stop rules, the fact that the cars can't start from a standstill, and the reliability problems, it'll be a cracking season.

[Raglanparade]

put them in similar cars and suddenly Bruni and Pantano arent that bad.

[Zurich]

Originally Posted by jasonhill9884

put them in similar cars and suddenly Bruni and Pantano arent that bad.

They're the only ones to have driven any cars like that before, dealt with those tyres, that amount of grip, and fitness required.

As the season goes on I'm sure more talented drivers will pass them as they gain experience.

[flexible-flyer]

certainly. but had they both not raced in f1 last year how would they have done? i would say differently, but not too much....

thats not taking anything away from them though. 2 good drives, pantano was outstanding.

[SALEEN S7R]

Rubbish camera work but the racing was good IMO, quite a few good overtaking manouvers during the race good race for Caroll too, 5th place isnt a bad result especially when u remember that he dosent know the track, hopefully he can get on the podium for race 2.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Well, i'm not sure of where the tv commentators were during the race, but either at the circuit or in a studio watching a small screen it was hard to see who was who.

Even I had trouble finding out whether a DAMS or a DPR or even a Hitech-Piquet car went off or that Scott Speed was going fast or one of the Arden drivers and I'm watching it full screen.

With the camera work done today in combination with color schemes that resemble each other I'm glad they got it right on some occasions

[Marcel ten Caat]

From the official GP2 series website

So, Kovalainen took the win from Lopez (6.8 seconds) Speed (17.7 secs) Bruni (18.4 secs) Carroll (21.5 secs) Jani (43 secs) Premat (46.9 secs) and Rosberg (48.6 secs,) with Ernesto Viso taking two points for fastest lap.

[Knowlesy]

Entertaining that, lovely sliding and can't wait to see it in the flesh at Silverstone!

It did seem rather farcical though, in many ways........should be rectified soon I guess.

And the coverage was shambolic. Not only was the camera work shoddy, but they put the only man worse than Carlton Kirby in there to commentate, stand up Martin Haven!

[flexible-flyer]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Rubbish camera work but the racing was good IMO, quite a few good overtaking manouvers during the race good race for Caroll too, 5th place isnt a bad result especially when u remember that he dosent know the track, hopefully he can get on the podium for race 2.

i would say the 2 drivers of the were pantano and carroll. but when you consider these 2 were signed very very late, the super nova team look to be back to their best. pantano was gone. dominating. and it seemed to me that carroll, making 2 early stops and leading with only 4 laps left was driving superbly. that 3rd pitstop is a mystery to me though....penalty? if so, why?

anyway am i the only person who cant access crash.net? hasnt worked all day depsite the ever reliable formulagp2.com displying articles from them.