GP2: Round 5 @ Monaco - Event Thread!

[Frank_White]

Hamilton dominates feild to secure GP2 rookie Monaco pole. Piquet nowhere so now Piquet and Hamilton tied for lead. Hamilton technically ahead because of greater number of victories.

[newoutsider]

I may be wrong, but I think GP2 award a point for pole, so Lewis is actually ahead on points as well going into Saturday's race.

[SALEEN S7R]

Interesting to see just how fast the GP2 cars are this weekend thanks to the 3rd element in the rear wing and the super soft Bridgestone slicks, Hamilton's pole postition time was signifcantly faster than the Super Aguri's and one of the Midland F1 cars in the 1st practise session. Okay the 2nd F1 practise session was faster and the slowest F1 cars were 6 tenths faster but that is still a very, very good turn of speed from the leading GP2 drivers.

[rustyfan]

Is it just one race for the GP2 series this weekend or two as usual?

[SALEEN S7R]

Just the 1 race, mainly down to the additional support races that arent normally associated with the F1 circus.

[newoutsider]

My mistake - the added point for Pole puts Lewis level with Nelsinho - but given the difference in starting positions, Lewis should end the weekend top of the pile

[rustyfan]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Just the 1 race, mainly down to the additional support races that arent normally associated with the F1 circus.

Thank you for clearing that up - Eurosport's online tv-guide lists it as "race 1", but since I couldn't find a "race 2" I wasn't sure what to think.

[SALEEN S7R]

Nobody is ever sure what to think about Eurosports online TV lists.

[hotwheels]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Interesting to see just how fast the GP2 cars are this weekend thanks to the 3rd element in the rear wing and the super soft Bridgestone slicks, Hamilton's pole postition time was signifcantly faster than the Super Aguri's and one of the Midland F1 cars in the 1st practise session. Okay the 2nd F1 practise session was faster and the slowest F1 cars were 6 tenths faster but that is still a very, very good turn of speed from the leading GP2 drivers.

Saleen, it's really amazing! They are really close to F1... I didn't realize this before.

[SALEEN S7R]

Yes they are very close to F1, but the main reasons are the extra 3rd element in the rear wing for Monaco only and the fact they are on soft Bridgestone slicks as opposed to grooved tyres. Also, Monaco is a fairly low speed track and therefore power doesent matter quite as much at Monaco as it does at other tracks.

It is nice to see the GP2 cars so close to F1 but dont expect it to last, as soon as the cars get to Silverstone the gap will be again around 3 seconds to the Super Aguri's.

[safc_fan89]

I didn't follow GP2 that closely last season because I kept forgetting to watch the races...are the cars faster than they were last season? They don't seem to be quite as slow.

Regarding Monaco...I think the race will be interesting, and I'm sure quite a few will end up in the walls if the driving in the other races is anything to go by!

Good to see Hamilton continuing to impress. But he really does need to improve his race starts. In F1 it's probably easier but he wouldn't get away with it.

[SALEEN S7R]

Generally the cars are about 3 seconds a lap faster than last year thanks to some areodynamic changes and the switch to slick tyres and a 500rpm rev limit increase, the differnce would be bigger but the cars are only allowed a 2 plane rear wing at all tracks apart from Monaco, last year the cars were allowed a 3 element rear wing at all races. The general feeling is that if the cars in their current form were allowed a 3 element rear wing the cars would be too easy to drive at the limit thanks mainly to the switch to Bridgestone slicks. The pole time for this years GP2 race is 4.2 seconds faster than last year's.

[perfectly_frank]

Can anyone elaborate on what happened to Giorgio Pantano during qualifying?

All the reports say he ground to a halt at Rascasse & that there was no debris to clean up.

Was it some kind of engine / eletrical problem, or was the debris somewhere else?

[Bleu]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Just the 1 race, mainly down to the additional support races that arent normally associated with the F1 circus.

Add also the fact of reverse grid there, though if there would be no overtaking in the sprint race, feature race winner would get 10, 2nd 8 and all from 3rd to 8th a total of 7 points during the weekend, discounting bonus points.

[safc_fan89]

Originally Posted by SALEEN S7R

Generally the cars are about 3 seconds a lap faster than last year thanks to some areodynamic changes and the switch to slick tyres and a 500rpm rev limit increase, the differnce would be bigger but the cars are only allowed a 2 plane rear wing at all tracks apart from Monaco, last year the cars were allowed a 3 element rear wing at all races. The general feeling is that if the cars in their current form were allowed a 3 element rear wing the cars would be too easy to drive at the limit thanks mainly to the switch to Bridgestone slicks. The pole time for this years GP2 race is 4.2 seconds faster than last year's.

The extra speed doesn't seem to have ruined the close racing at all, which is good. And shows to F1 that it's possible to have close racing at high speed.

I thought they were a bit faster because the fastest laps at the Nurburgring were only about 10 seconds or so slower than the F1 laps.

[Jackman]

Originally Posted by perfectly_frank

Can anyone elaborate on what happened to Giorgio Pantano during qualifying?

All the reports say he ground to a halt at Rascasse & that there was no debris to clean up.

Was it some kind of engine / eletrical problem, or was the debris somewhere else?

Gearbox.

[chunterer]

Well from the hacked coverage I saw on Eurosport, it was another demo drive from Lewis.

Perera did ace job to finish second and maybe Dams have finally got the set ups cracked as Monfardini looked pretty pacy during the race until he lost his head!!

I doubt my predictions score will be anything to write home about though.

As soon as I saw Gommendy's chassis undebody start to appear at Ste Devote Lap[1, I thought: 'this is gonna cost me points!'

Ouch...

Lapierre looked a bit shaken after getting harpooned by Tristan, anyone know how he's doing?

[Asp]

Well that was somewhat dominant!!

I heard on Auto Moto this morning the Lapierre is under observation in hospital after his flight at the first corner, hope he'll be out soon.

[Jackman]

Lapierre was taken to hospital, and was kept in overnight for observation: the team say two broken vertebrae and out for six weeks, his manager says he doesn't know but they are doing a scan today. Either way, it was a nasty incident.

Gommendy was badly shaken up too - he was very stiff and sore yesterday, and I'll bet he hurts even more today.

[flexible-flyer]

yeah nicolas is out of the silverstone race. i wonder who arden will give the drive to?

anyway ive just given up hope for my own fave driver adam carroll. the first half of this season for adam has been just like the second half of last season. he has no luck, honestly. heaps upon heaps of points up in smoke. i hope to god he and his team get it right for silverstone. silverstone was where his luck left him last year, so maybe this is where his luck will return for this season.

[Mekola]

Perhaps Arden might replace Lapierre with another Red Bull driver. Robert Doornbos, Neel Jani, Colin Fleming and Sebastian Vettel come to mind.

[flexible-flyer]

Originally Posted by Mekola

Perhaps Arden might replace Lapierre with another Red Bull driver. Robert Doornbos, Neel Jani, Colin Fleming and Sebastian Vettel come to mind.

vettel would be fantastic!

would also be interesting to see how an f1 test driver would get on in stepping down for a weekend!

[nev]

Why would you want to risk doing a GP2 race when all it could do is damage your career

[Jackman]

I'd love to see Heikki come back and race at Silverstone - he did the slick tyre testing and knows the car, and he's never raced Lewis, so it would be awesome to see them fight each other. Although it's pretty unlikely, obviously - Neel Jani is more likely, but he would have to give up his Friday test for the weekend.

[Sephirot1]

There is no WSR weekend, right? That would mean Fleming could be the chosen one.