GP2 - 2009 Nürburgring weekend.

[Mekola]

So was happened Race 1, with Nico Hülkenberg won in home soil. Willi Weber was so happy with the win...!

Roldán RodrÃ*guez made the race of his life, as good as he proved in GP2 Asia. It seems the luck of Valerio turned to him (or Piquet GP just changed cars?).

Zuber made another podium for the glory of the Emirates and FMSI.

Poor ones there were Di Grassi, who lost a lot of time in the pitstop, losing a possible podium, and Grosjean, whose car was knocked out at the end of the race while was 6th.

[chunterer]

Missed E2's coverage as out for the afternoon so a few comments from me.

Maldonado out early on, why?

Nico now has the march on his teammate for sure....

Parente and Perez must've made some fairly decent progress to get into the points, with Sergio on the pole for tomorrow morning I see

[Ajayrious]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Maldonado out early on, why?

Maldonardo's usual brand of stupidity. He went all kamikaze on someone at the first corner and then tried to take the flat out chicane, flat out despite the fact his wheel was hanging off.

[the sniper]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Maldonado out early on, why?

Did you really need to ask.

Originally Posted by Ajayrious

Maldonardo's usual brand of stupidity. He went all kamikaze on someone at the first corner and then tried to take the flat out chicane, flat out despite the fact his wheel was hanging off.

Another classic from crazy Maldonado, you've got to love the guy for his habit of spicing up processional races.

[Hazard]

Hah. Great to haven Haven back on GP2 - Good thing Eurosport have that two year contract already given his comments about Petrov's penalty.

Great race so far - good fight for the win between Hulkenberg and Petrov was on the cards!

[jab]

3 wins in a row for ART - back on form after a year or 2 in the doldrums. 20 GP2 wins in total too

I seem to remember Rosberg's big title push started with a big mid-season surge. Now the other Nico is doing the same, it seems

[Super Hans]

I really enjoyed this morning's race. Drivers fighting each other wheel-to-wheel whilst simultaneously fighting to keep it on the island. Beautiful. If the F1 race is half as good, it'll be a memorable one.

[trevisio]

Originally Posted by Hazard

Hah. Great to haven Haven back on GP2 - Good thing Eurosport have that two year contract already given his comments about Petrov's penalty.

Great race so far - good fight for the win between Hulkenberg and Petrov was on the cards!

That's exactlty why I enjoy his commentary. Disappointed he didn't go further to be honest! Like putting into words the blatantly partisan nationalistic overtones of the decision given the main beneficiary was the latest "next Schumacher" German.

We were robbed of a great fight for the win in race 2 by this sickly decision.

[the sniper]

A very enjoyable race today, too bad their not all like this nowadays...

Nice to see Parente in 2nd, I was beginning to loose faith in him, hopefully this performance will inspire him to continue this form into the second half of the season, ahead of a title challenge in 2010 with Ocean?

[Armco Bender]

Petrov was shafted...

[Andy77]

Petrov's penalty was harsh to say the least. It would have been a complete joke if they never touched at all but since they touched it is pretty harsh.

Man of this race to me was Grosjean who started in 22nd spot and made his way up to 4th. Under this conditions it was max attack
Hülkenberg though was quite clever I felt. First he did not get into trouble after the start and then looked what he could do. Then he saw that he can go faster than most and made the best of it.

Pretty enjoyable race 2 despite Petrov's penalty

[bella]

about petrov's penalty - didn't webber get a similar penalty for a similar crime in the f1... at least they're consistent.

[chunterer]

I know many of you have been banging on about how good Hulkenberg is for ages, and up until last weekend I wasn't all that convinced...

Well I can definitely see something in him now, although he will need to keep that up for the remainder of the season to cement his position as a 'hot property' imo.

I agree with the steward comments people have made - a bit draconian on poor Petrov to say the least. Comparing his plight to that of Webber in the GP and it's not as easy to make up the lost time in a car the same as everyone else's, so his race was properly ruined - no disrespect to Mark Webber though who perhaps put in the drive of the season so far in F1!!

Grosjean was driver of the 2ndrace though without any shadow of a doubt. Shame about Maldonado biffing his front wing as up until they reached the top 8 or so, he was arguably doing the better job of the two. Both were in a league of their own for car control combined with pure racecraft and press on style. The Venezuelan only lost 8th at the end though so how he kept that car going with practically zero front downforce in those tyre killing conditions is a bit beyond me??!!

What else stood out? Parente taking yonks to deal with Kobayashi who had made the start of the season surely? Alvaro was perhaps just thinking of a solid result as he's had pace but not much luck so far this season. He only seemed to press on when the recovering Petrov loomed large in his mirrors?

Although Rodriguez and Zuber got podiums on Saurday, if we take the ART cars, the Barwa cars and perhaps the Dams and Ocean drivers out of the weekend's action, the rest were simply nowhere on pace?

[Peralta]

DiGrassi's stock is going down in a big way. Silly mistake at the expense of Perez this time.

[chunterer]

Ah yes i'd forgotten about Sergio. Did quite well to get 8th in the first race and then got punted off by Di Grassi in the second.

I suspect Perez' car was damaged in some way because he struggled after that. IIRC he was stellar in a damp F3 race sometime last year, so his grip problems can't have been down to him can they?

[Jackman]

Originally Posted by Peralta

DiGrassi's stock is going down in a big way. Silly mistake at the expense of Perez this time.

To be fair, di Grassi's steering was broken by Petrov, so I'm not sure he had a lot of opportunity to avoid Perez.

[chunterer]

That info certainly would help to conclude the reason for that particular incident then Jackman!!

Thinking back to the second race and the conditions never quite 'improved' enough to turn the race on it's head. If it had dried out significantly earlier, then we might have seen those fellows who did the all or nothing approach on slicks come out of it a great deal better!!

I know that sound logical, but it's one thing someone not in contention (like Rodriguez or Nunes was it?) having a go but it's a different kettle of fish if someone up in the points takes a flyer at a key point in a race on the premise that they will move up the order the dryer the track gets.

What continues to amaze me is the massive gap that Petrov and Hulkenberg established in the first four or five laps when the track was properly damp compared to say Parente in 4th at that stage.

Was it really down to mixed set ups on some of the cars, or more down to certain guys just getting on with it?

[bella]

hulkenberg was pretty lit on saturday as well. his engine was putting out a lot of black smoke but it only seemed to be appearing on the left side of the car (if you're looking at it from behind) - after it got slightly worse during the race on saturday i was expecting them to change it but it was still doing the same thing on sunday morning.

the air temperature was barely above 10'c, and when it was above on saturday it was pretty windy. i would imagine driving the car quickly on cold tyres was a skill worth having that weekend!