Patronise F1

Championship leader Pantano claimed pole position ahead of expert street racer Pastor Maldonado (who had been on pole at Monaco), and the Italian led into the first corner, with everyone safely making it as far as turn two, where Ho Pin Tung slid off, taking Kamui Kobayashi with him, and bringing out the safety car for a lap.  Vitaly Petrov had passed Maldonado off the start line, but was unable to do anything to stop Pantano escaping into the distance.

The mandatory pit stops were taken early, as teams feared the further deployment of safety cars, and in the process Romain Grosjean was able to jump ahead of Maldonado into third with Bruno Senna, Pantano’s nearest challenger for the title, in fifth place after a difficult practice.  Down the order Senna’s team-mate Karun Chandhok was released from his pit stop right into the path of Andy Soucek, and was interestingly (given the decision of the stewards regarding Felipe Massa the following day) handed a drive through penalty.

Grosjean and Maldonado then had a fantastic scrap for the final podium position, with the Venezuelan diving up the inside from way back into the final corner with 8 laps to go, with the pair going wheel-to-wheel down to turn one, Maldonado actually getting the jump before Grosjean came back up the inside into the second corner.  At the end of the following lap however, the Frenchman left the door open again, and Maldonado put his Piquet Sports car into the gap and took third.

Alvaro Parente had driven well to climb from 13th on the grid to sixth, but dropped out on the penultimate lap.  The drama wasn’t over however, for things took a dramatic turn on the very last lap.  Petrov was gradually gaining on Pantano but there was no reason to believe the Italian was doing anything other than just cruising to the flag.  But just five corners from home, Pantano began to splutter to a halt, and in a flash Petrov, Maldonado and Grosjean were past him to fill the podium places.

So could the fuel-shy Pantano crawl home to fourth ahead of his chief title rival Senna?  He couldn’t, but amazingly the Brazilian also ran out of fuel in the final couple of corners.  Jerome D’Ambrosio and Lucas Di Grassi passed him on either side, with D’Ambrosio running wide in the final corner and gifting 4th place to Di Grassi.  Sebastien Buemi, Andy Soucek and Luca Filippi inherited the final points positions, as Senna could only plod around the final corner into ninth.  To add insult to injury for Pantano, he also lost the point for fastest lap to Maldonado, as he was classified in 14th.

Sprint Race

The much criticised (by me, at least) Filippi was on Pole after stealing eighth on the line on Saturday, and led into the first corner from Soucek, Di Grassi and Grosjean, although Soucek left the door wide open for the Italian and Frenchman at turn two, while at the back Andi Zuber had run into the back of Michael Herck, ending his own race and sending Herck into the pits for lengthy repairs.

Grosjean then jumped ahead of Di Grassi, and Maldonado passed Soucek for 4th at the last corner on the 2nd lap, but understeered straight into the wall just two corners later to end his race.  One potential winner had been eliminated when Buemi’s car failed to get away from the grid, with the Swiss driver eventually retiring three laps later when he collided with the BCN of Adrian Valles, and Sakon Yamamoto also cruised in to retire.

Senna meanwhile was following closely in the wheeltracks of Soucek, and got past when the Spaniard slowed dramatically, with the Brazilian having to take to the very dusty run-off area to pass.  As a result, Senna spun into the wall a couple of corners later, promoting Pantano up to fifth behind D’Ambrosio.  Meanwhile, the battle for the lead was raging between Grosjean and Filippi, with Di Grassi right behind waiting to pounce. 

Grosjean finally put his ART up the inside of Filippi’s Arden into the final corner on lap 11 with a clean pass to take the lead.  Filippi wasn’t having it though, and came back up the inside into turn two, but only succeeded in punting the luckless Frenchman off into the barrier.  All of which allowed Di Grassi to move into the lead with Filippi remaining second, and a furious Grosjean stalking back to the pits.  Marko Asmer then spun and stalled in the middle of the track at turn 5, bringing out the pace car.

When it peeled off, there was an eight lap sprint to the flag.  Petrov didn’t look like repeating his victory from the previous day, but pressured Javier Villa into a mistake which allowed the Russian to jump into sixth place.  Or at least he should have, for Chandhok decided he would try and pass both of them, punting Petrov out in the process and completely an utterly pointless weekend for iSport, whose championship lead would diminish dramatically.

Di Grassi however motored on to his second win of the season, setting fastest lap in the process, to move to within 20 points of the championship lead with 40 still up for grabs, and bearing in mind the Brazilian is averaging 10 points per weekend, his hopes aren’t over yet.  Filippi came home second, but was rewarded for his destruction of Grosjean’s race by being penalised 25 seconds which dropped him to 13th.  D’Ambrosio was therefore promoted to second, with Pantano third and Diego Nunes scoring his first points of the season in fourth.  Villa and Kamui Kobayashi completed the points finishers.

Drivers Championship Standings -
1 Pantano 71pts, 2 Senna 58pts, 3 Di Grassi 51pts, 4 Grosjean 42pts, 5 Buemi 37pts, 6 Maldonado 35pts, 7 Zuber 32pts, 8 Chandhok 31pts, 9 Petrov 30pts, 10 Parente 26pts, 11 Conway 18pts, 12 D'Ambrosio 12pts, 13 Kobayashi, Soucek 11pts, 15 Villa 8pts, 16 Tung 7pts, 17 Filippi, Rodriguez 6pts, 19 Buurman, Valles 5pts, 21 Nunes, Yamamoto, Valsecchi 3pts, 24 Hanley, Carroll 1pt.