GP2 Rounds 1 and 2, Bahrain. The Event Thread!

[chunterer]

Well folks brace yourselves, the season opening races are almost upon us and we can begin to look forward to the categories 3rd season.

Hopefully it will still provide us with fantastic, open racing and throwing up some world class F1 potential drivers!

After a years' break, GP2 returns to the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, the scene of the title deciding races in 2005. At that event Nico Rosberg clinched the title in race one, sealing what looked almost inevitable since mid season as his ART team got right on top of setting up the cars. Heikki Kovalainen of Arden battled valiantly and was really the only driver to regularly challenge Nico and his teamate Alex Premat in the latter half of the season.

Of course the lap record is probably obslolete, as the cars now run on slicks and have had aero mods, but for the record here is the results of the last GP2 meeting here:

Penultimate Round:
Pole: Rosberg, 1:44.643

1 N. Rosberg ART
2 A. Premat ART
3 H. Kovalainen Arden

Fastest Lap: Premat, 1:47.766

Race 2 & Final Round Result:

1 N. Rosberg ART
2 E. Viso BCN Comp.
3 A. Premat ART

Fastest Lap: Premat, 1:47.733

In testing for this years series, Isport, ART and Campos have been to the fore, but doubts loom over the ultimate competitiveness of the double titlists ART's new drivers.

A lot of teams have gone for experience over rookies with isports' Timo Glock most people's pre season tip for the title. Other experienced guys include Giorgio Pantano (Campos), Antonia Pizzonia (FMS) and Nicolas Lapierre (Dams) for whom nothing other than title challenges will suffice.

Of the newcomers most eyes will arguably be on Arden's Bruno Senna, with his season long Brit F3 rival Mike Conway (SuperNova), Japan's Kazuki Nakajima (Dams) who has gone well in the off season, WSR 3.5 front runner Pastor Maldonado (Trident), and South African charger, Adrian Zaugg (Arden) are also quite highly fancied to shine.

TV times will vary around the globe so check this: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95626 and your local press, internet for tv station guides.

So there are many questions to be answered come the weekend. Will winter from turn out to be true? Will anyone flatter to deceive? And can we expect anyone to pull some surprises?

[rustyfan]

Can't wait for the GP2 season to get underway and hopefully it will be another great year

[Adri_tifosi]

Friday

Morning

1. Timo Glock iSport International 1:42.223 14
2. Luca Filippi Super Nova International 1:42.847 + 0.624 12
3. Alexandre Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports 1:43.021 + 0.798 13
4. Kazuki Nakajima DAMS 1:43.052 + 0.829 11
5. Lucas di Grassi ART Grand Prix 1:43.123 + 0.900 11
6. Antonio Pizzonia FMS International 1:43.148 + 0.925 14
7. M.Ammermuller ART Grand Prix 1:43.172 + 0.949 12
8. Andreas Zuber iSport International 1:43.307 + 1.084 13
9. Nicolas Lapierre DAMS 1:43.397 + 1.174 10
10. Bruno Senna Arden International 1:43.454 + 1.231 13
11. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:43.479 + 1.256 14
12. Mike Conway Super Nova International 1:43.493 + 1.270 16
13. Pastor Maldonado Trident Racing 1:43.641 + 1.418 13
14. Kohei Hirate Trident Racing 1:43.651 + 1.428 10
15. Adrian Zaugg Arden International 1:43.733 + 1.510 13
16. Giorgio Pantano Campos Grand Prix 1:43.839 + 1.616 10
17. Borja Garcia Durango 1:43.850 + 1.627 14
18. Vitaly Petrov Campos Grand Prix 1:43.894 + 1.671 14
19. Karun Chandhok Durango 1:43.963 + 1.740 13
20. Roldan Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 1:44.272 + 2.049 14
21. Jason Tahinci FMS International 1:44.339 + 2.116 12
22. Sergio Jimenez Racing Engineering 1:44.805 + 2.582 7
23. Sakon Yamamoto BCN Competicion 1:44.941 + 2.718 13
24. C.Bakkerud DPR 1:45.542 + 3.319 16
25. Ho-Pin Tung BCN Competicion 1:45.638 + 3.415 14
26. Andy Soucek DPR 1:52.284 + 10.061 2

[amier]

Jason Tahinci, he has been in GP2 since the series started and has never achieved anything....

[Jackman]

No he hasn't.

[mllevy]

tahinci was only in 06 and 07

[Go_For_Pole]

Was reading the Autosport GP2 preview the other day andd i was suprised to see how fondly they were refering to Tahinci. Strange considering that the backmarkers are normally getting a beating but he must be a nice guy

What happened to Soucek?

[J.R]

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

Was reading the Autosport GP2 preview the other day andd i was suprised to see how fondly they were refering to Tahinci. Strange considering that the backmarkers are normally getting a beating but he must be a nice guy

What happened to Soucek?

I read he had some technical problems and wasn´t able to drive for most of the session

[GoBruno]

Here is the qualifying results :

1. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m 40.873s
2. Xandi Negrao Minardi Piquet 1m 40.958s
3. Andreas Zuber iSport 1m 41.034s
4. Lucas di Grassi ART 1m 41.052s
5. Bruno Senna Arden 1m 41.203s
6. Kohei Hirate Trident 1m 41.213s
7. Timo Glock iSport 1m 41.225s
8. Borja Garcia Durango 1m 41.252s
9. Kazuki Nakajima DAMS 1m 41.306s
10. Mike Conway Super Nova 1m 41.332s
11. Nicolas Lapierre DAMS 1m 41.458s
12. Antonio Pizzonia FMSI 1m 41.544s
13. Giorgio Pantano Campos 1m 41.549s
14. Adrian Zaugg Arden 1m 41.715s
15. Michael Ammermuller ART 1m 41.746s
16. Karun Chandhok Durango 1m 41.810s
17. Roldan Rodriguez Minardi Piquet 1m 41.951s
18. Sakon Yamamoto BCN 1m 42.139s
19. Pastor Maldonado Trident 1m 42.189s
20. Jason Tahinci FMSI 1m 42.234s
21. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1m 42.255s
22. Sergio Jimenez Racing Engineering 1m 42.492s
23. Vitaly Petrov Campos 1m 42.561s
24. Ho-Pin Tung BCN 1m 43.001s
25. Andy Soucek DPR 1m 43.257s
26. Christian Bakkerud DPR 1m 43.333s

[chunterer]

Eh????? Is this how the grid will look for Race 1?

I mean look at who's up there and the times...

As I said in my opening gambit, 'Can we expect anyone to pull some surprises?'

Answer: SEVERAL!

Maybe Negrao has been overlooked pre season, established engineers, good experience, form on upward trajectory last season etc....Dark horse?

No doubt Filippi is impressive with that though and Senna's done a superb job to net 5th fastest time. DPR in desperate trouble by looks of it too.

Lot of fancied drivers with a lot to do!

[chunterer]

BTW, who's Filippi's Chief Engineer this year at Supernova. Has there been a change?

And have the cars really found 4 secs a lap since '05? That's some progress...

[Knowlesy]

Is that grid a joke?

Nice intro chuntz....now, onto some cracking racing no doubt!

[Jackman]

Originally Posted by chunterer

BTW, who's Filippi's Chief Engineer this year at Supernova. Has there been a change?

Yes - he's got Sean Thompson this year.

[runshaw]

Did Nicolas Lapierre have any problems? He has been in this series since 2005 and was the first ever pole winner and set fastest lap in the first race. Since then he has rarely done anything at all. You think he would at least beat his rookie team mate. What happened to Ammermuller as well?

[Knowlesy]

The problem, really, is that Lapierre is at best a very average driver.

[Daisy]

Originally Posted by chunterer

And have the cars really found 4 secs a lap since '05? That's some progress...

I thought slicks were introduced only in 2006, so that will produce some quicker laptimes.

Interesting grid. I expected Filippi in the top 8, but not on pole. Senna and Hirate also good in their first qualifying, Glock en Di Grassi decent en Ammermuller pretty dissapoiting. He started great last year, the end was dissapointing and now not in the top 14. What's going on? Too much focused on F1?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

The problem, really, is that Lapierre is at best a very average driver.

Ouch!! Not far wrong - although as runshaw intimates, he did show immense promise alongside HK at Arden in the innaugural season but has since tailed off. Not having the right tools probably hasn't helped though.

Cheers for thumbs up on my intro btw

Originally Posted by Jackman

Yes - he's got Sean Thompson this year.

Has he been at the team long? I'm just thinking that both Luca and Supernova have obviously made steps forward thanks to some element or other, which in this series has tended to be engineer related?

Originally Posted by Daisy

I thought slicks were introduced only in 2006, so that will produce some quicker laptimes.

Sure thing Daisy, I meant since the series last raced there.

[Alex K]

So why did you rate Lopez so lowly? He was doing outstanding job in tests and qualifing sessions for Super Nova. And still hasn't managed anthing in races. Why? Maybe because Super Nova has very good qual set-up, and not the est one for races. Well, we'll see this season, I bet Filippi and Conway will suffert from Lopez syndrom.

Sears needs backer, he needs more money to get out from the shadow. It's a great but underfinanced team.

[Jackman]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Has he been at the team long? I'm just thinking that both Luca and Supernova have obviously made steps forward thanks to some element or other, which in this series has tended to be engineer related?

Since December. We'll see what happens, as Super Nova last year had a habit of slipping away in races, although to be fair Fauzy is rubbish and Lopez never really showed much as an out and out racer (brilliant tester though).

To be fair to Super Nova they do have some good engineers there, and Filippi is a pretty sharp racer, so we'll see what happens - Zuber said last night he thought that Filippi would fall away, but he was going on historical evidence, and was referring to the team rather than the driver.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Jackman

Since December. We'll see what happens, as Super Nova last year had a habit of slipping away in races, although to be fair Fauzy is rubbish and Lopez never really showed much as an out and out racer (brilliant tester though).

To be fair to Super Nova they do have some good engineers there, and Filippi is a pretty sharp racer, so we'll see what happens - Zuber said last night he thought that Filippi would fall away, but he was going on historical evidence, and was referring to the team rather than the driver.

Well yes i've always found it a bit strange how that team has slipped from prominence (but have thought simialr about DAMS after their simialr dominace at this level in past), but it's fair to say that Lopez was a pretty good scrapper in '05, but something went horribly wrong for him last year, I reckon. Was it him, or was it the car/set up lacking something?

Zuber kicking off with the mind games already - jeez they start early these days!! It will certainly be interesting to see what happens at the start with a few guys in hitherto unheralded territory at the front of the grid.

Will they keep their heads, or will we be facing either a SC period or re-start?!!!

[runshaw]

Fillipi wins. 12 points already, more than he scored all last season!

[shambles]

Great race from Filippi, really strong and controlled. The iSport pair couldn't challenge, but they should be pleased none the less.

Senna and Zaugg, VERY impressive, a shame for Conway.

[karimbo]

Originally Posted by martin-1

Great race from Filippi, really strong and controlled. The iSport pair couldn't challenge, but they should be pleased none the less.

Senna and Zaugg, VERY impressive, a shame for Conway.

Could we have the FULL classification please ??

Thanks!

[Adri_tifosi]

http://www.eurosport.fr/gp2/bahrain/...tc188692.shtml

[Adri_tifosi]

Race 1

1. Luca Fillipi Super Nova 33 laps 58m 34.676s
2. Timo Glock iSport +8.162s
3. Andreas Zuber iSport +11.903s
4. Bruno Senna Arden +16.373s
5. Lucas di Grassi ART +18.074s
6. Adrian Zaugg Arden +39.135s
7. Nicolas Lapierre DAMS +39.462s
8. Borja Garcia Durango +40.122s
9. Karun Chandhok Durango +43.505s
10. Michael Ammermuller ART +51.883s
11. Sakon Yamamoto BCN +62.082s
12. Andy Soucek DPR +64.142s
13. Christian Bakkerud DPR +64.409s
14. Vitaly Petrov Campos +69.289s
15. Ho-Pin Tung BCN +72.116s
16. Antonio Pizzonia FMSI +1 lap
17. Kazuki Nakajima DAMS +1 lap
18. Kohei Hirate Trident +1 laps
19. Sergio Jimenez Racing Engineering +2 laps Rtd

Rtd Xandi Negrao Minardi Piquet 14 laps completed
Rtd Javier Villa Racing Engineering 7 laps completed
Rtd Jason Tahinci FMSI 3 laps completed
Rtd Roldan Rodriguez Minardi Piquet 1 laps completed
Rtd Mike Conway Super Nova 0 laps completed

Dns Giorgio Pantano Campos
Dns Pastor Maldonado Trident

Fastest lap: Kazuki Nakajima DAMS 1m 43.226s lap 27