Another race weekend, and another win apiece for the championship-leading drivers in both GP2 and GP3, as they took another step nearer to the title. But there was plenty of action across both series at the German GP track.
The Hockenheim weekend represented the start of a crucial back-to-back sequence of events for both series, which will conclude at the Hungaroring next weekend. With both championships heading towards their conclusion, a good run of results in the four races across the two weekends would likely make or break a title challenge. So far, so good though, for both Rapax's Pastor Maldonado, who secured an unlikely fourth feature race win on the trot in the GP2 Series, and for Mexican ART Grand Prix driver Esteban Gutierrez, who took his own fourth win of the season in the GP3 championship to continue his seemingly endless domination of the new-for-2010 feeder series.
But there was still plenty of action, and a few scares along the way. Because, no matter how dull the title battles, these are still some hectic motor racing series to watch, no matter what the track.
GP2 Series Report
Driver Changes
With Luca Filippi still subbing for the injured Josef Kral at Super Nova, there was a second driver change to add to the tally for Hockenheim, albeit a tactical switch rather than an enforced one. After a dismal first five rounds, the DAMS team chose to draft former Renault F1 driver and GP2 race winner Romain Grosjean back into the team, in place of Jerome d'Ambrosio. The team insisted, though, that it was only a one-off switch in order to bring an experienced GP2 driver onboard to try and help out with their car issues in 2010.
Qualifying
The qualifying session was run on a wet track on Friday at Hockenheim, with the hapless GP2 ranks throwing up plenty of entertainment as they struggled with the wet track.
A series of incidents saw the session red flagged twice, the second one, after separate accidents for Sam Bird (ART) and Davide Valsecchi (iSport) seeing the session restart with just four minutes to go. A frantic flurry of late lap times ensued, with Arden International's Charles Pic taking pole position once the dust had settled.
Pic shared the front row with runaway series leader Pastor Maldonado for Rapax, with iSport's Oliver Turvey taking fourth ahead of Sergio Perex (Addax). South African driver Adrian Zaugg took a shock 5th place for the usually-woeful Trident Racing, and had been top of the times when the second red flag emerged. Dani Clos took 6th for Racing Engineering.
Grosjean had looked on course for an impressively strong result, with the returning Frenchman sitting second in the standings until the final flurry of action, where he was unable to find clear track and saw himself tumble down to 13th place.
Hockenheim GP2 Grid Positions -
1 Charles Pic (Arden) 1:41.638, 2 Pastor Maldonado (Rapax) +0.268, 3 Oliver Turvey (iSport) +0.385, 4 Sergio Perez (Barwa Addax) +0.725, 5 Adrian Zaugg (Trident) +0.832, 6 Dani Clos (Racing Eng) +0.979, 7 Luis Razia (Rapax) +1.284, 8 Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova) +1.307, 9 Jules Bianchi (ART) +1.370, 10 Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax) +1.596, 11 Luca Filippi (Super Nova) +1.697, 12 Johnny Cecotto Jr (Trident) +1.699, 13 Romain Grosjean (DAMS) +1.764, 14 Christian Vietoris (Racing Eng) +1.866, 15 Michael Herck (DPR) +1.969, 16 Alberto Valerio (Coloni) +2.056, 17 Davide Valsecchi (iSport) +2.524, 18 Max Chilton (Ocean Racing) +1.869*, 19 Ho-Pin Tung (DAMS) +2.535, 20 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +2.641, 21 Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Coloni) +2.651, 22 Sam Bird (ART) +2.849, 23 Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing) +4.735, 24 Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden) +3.062*.
* Demoted following grid penalty.
Feature Race
Despite the slightly surprising shape of the grid, there was something grimly predictable about the feature race, with Pic bogging down at the start and Maldonado immediately grabbing the lead.
He was under pressure early on from Perez, who had also leaped ahead of Pic off the start line, but the Mexican failed to find a way past, and following the mandatory round of tyre changes, Maldonado eased to another crushing victory. The formerly unfancied team and driver are now in complete control of the championship, and it is an entirely fair situation goven his driving in 2010.
Perez ended up a lonely second, nearly 4 seconds down on the Venezuelan by the end, but almost ten seconds clear of the scrap for the final podium spot, which saw Pic salvage a decent result from the attentions of Clos.
Jules Bianchi finished a distant fifth ahead of Super Nova driver Marcus Ericsson, while Adrian Zaugg converted his surprisingly good grid position into what was his first points of the season. The iSport car of Oliver Turvey completed the top ten.
Further back, a number of fancied drivers hit trouble. Grosjean's series return was ruined early on when the Racing Engineering car of Christian Vietoris hit him from behind, necessitating lengthy repairs which left him three laps down. Meanwhile, ART's Sam Bird's comeback drive after his poor qualifying result was hit by a drive-through penalty for colliding with Giedo van der Garde (Addax).
So Maldonado took a fourth straight feature race win, while it would be Turvey who would start from pole for the Sunday morning reverse-grid sprint event, for the second race weekend in a row.
| Feature Race Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Pastor Maldonado | Rapax Team | 54:07.807 | 10 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Barwa Addax Team | +3.866 | 8 |
| 3 | Charles Pic | Arden International | +12.423 | 6 |
| 4 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | +12.900 | 5 |
| 5 | Jules Bianchi | ART Grand Prix | +23.175 | 4 |
| 6 | Marcus Ericsson | Super Nova Racing | +26.399 | 3 |
| 7 | Adrian Zaugg | Trident Racing | +38.594 | 2 |
| 8 | Oliver Turvey | iSport International | +42.832 | 1 |
| 9 | Michael Herck | DPR | +45.293 | |
| 10 | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | +45.387 |
11 Alberto Valerio (Scuderia Coloni) +47.278, 12 Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax Team) +48.783, 13 Johnny Cecotto Jr (Trident Racing) +52.108, 14 Sam Bird (ART Grand Prix) +52.985, 15 Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Scuderia Coloni) +1:02.845, 16 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +1 lap, 17 Davide Valsecchi (iSport International) +1 lap, 18 Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden International) +1 lap, 19 Max Chilton (Ocean Racing Technology) +2 laps, 20 Romain Grosjean (DAMS) +3 laps, R Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing Technology) 34 laps, R Ho-Pin Tung (DAMS) 9 laps, R Luiz Razia (Rapax Team) 4 laps, R Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering) 0 laps.
Sprint Race
Turvey made a similarly poor start in the sprint to Pic's feature race failure, and initially lost out to Zaugg and Ericsson, though he moved back past the Swedish driver on the opening lap and reclaimed the lead two laps later.
But the man on the move was Perez, who picked off Ericsson himself before moving past both Zaugg and Turvey to establish himself in the lead. From then on, he was never challenged and he picked up his third win of 2010 by over six seconds.
Turvey finished in a comfortable second place, with Zaugg taking Trident Racing's first podium in over two years in third place. Jules Bianchi was fourth.
Further back, there was a titanic scrap for fifth place unfolding between Bird, Clos, Maldonado and Grosjean, who had come from the back of the grid to challenge for the points.
But there was an unhappy ending for him, and for Maldonado. After Bird forced his way past Clos at the tight Hockenheim hairpin, Grosjean attempted to follow him, and Maldonado moved to the inside to try and take both Grosjean and Clos.
But the pair collided on the exit of the corner, and both drivers retired on the spot. Bird held on for fifth, with Clos completing the points scorers in sixth.
Despite his retirement, Maldonado retained his championship lead heading to the Hungaroring, with the Venezuelan now 21 points ahead of Perez and 23 ahead of Clos, and still looking like a champion-in-waiting.
| Sprint Race Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Barwa Addax Team | 38:02.071 | 6 |
| 2 | Oliver Turvey | iSport International | +6.338 | 5 |
| 3 | Adrian Zaugg | Trident Racing | +8.111 | 4 |
| 4 | Jules Bianchi | ART Grand Prix | +13.575 | 3 |
| 5 | Sam Bird | ART Grand Prix | +14.948 | 2 |
| 6 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | +17.096 | 1 |
| 7 | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | +17.386 | |
| 8 | Michael Herck | DPR | +21.287 | |
| 9 | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | +22.492 | |
| 10 | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | +23.706 |
11 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +24.535, 12 Alberto Valerio (Scuderia Coloni) +27.981, 13 Luiz Razia (Rapax Team) +28.234, 14 Ho-Pin Tung (DAMS) +29.197, 15 Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Scuderia Coloni) +32.532, 16 Max Chilton (Ocean Racing Technology) +37.938, 17 Charles Pic (Arden International) +40.261, 18 Davide Valsecchi (iSport International) +41.174, R Romain Grosjean (DAMS) 24 laps, R Pastor Maldonado (Rapax Team) 24 laps, R Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden International) 23 laps, R Johnny Cecotto Jr (Trident Racing) 14 laps, R Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova Racing) 2 laps, R Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing Technology) 1 lap.
Drivers Championship after 12 of 20 rounds -
1 Maldonado 66pts, 2 Perez 45pts, 3 Clos 43pts, 4 Bianchi 39pts, 5 van der Garde 27pts, 6 Bird 24pts, 7 Pic 23pts, 8 Razia 20pts, 9 Turvey 18pts, 10 Valsecchi 17pts, 11 Ericsson 11pts, 12 Herck 10pts, 13 Leimer, Ricci 8pts, 15 Jerome d'Ambrosio 7pts, 16 Vietoris 5pts, 18 Valerio 4pts, 19 Cecotto Jr 3pts.
Teams Championship after 12 of 20 rounds -
1 Rapax Team 86pts, 2 Barwa Addax 72pts, 3 ART Grand Prix 63pts, 4 Racing Engineering 48pts, 5 iSport 35pts, 6 Arden 23pts, 7 DPR 18pts, 8 Super Nova 11pts, 9 Trident Racing 9pts, 10 Ocean Racing 8pts, 11 DAMS 7pts, 12 Scuderia Coloni 4pts.
GP3 Series Report
If the GP2 Series was fun, then GP3 had an absolutely chaotic pair of races. The odd action began even before the start of the racing, with 22 drivers hit with grid penalties for setting quick times during a yellow flag period in the qualifying session.
All of that meant that although James Jakes (Manor Racing) had been quickest in the session, it was Carlin's Josef Newgarden that started from pole, ahead of Jakes, Robert Wickens (Status GP) and Roberto Merhi (ATECH).
When the lights went out for the feature race, the front few led away in grid order, apart from Merhi, who stalled on the grid before the formation lap, but Canadian driver Wickens was soon on the move, passing Jakes and Newgarden on the opening lap to establish a lead he would never lose.
Newgarden dropped steadily down the order before eventually being punted off on the final lap by the recovering Merhi.
He eventually crossed the line well clear of Jakes, who nevertheless hung on for his third podium finish of the season. Renger van der Zande (Mucke) took third place, holding off championship leader Esteban Gutierrez's ART car as he did so. Gutierrez nevertheless took fourth from 10th on the grid.
Stefano Coletti took 5th for Tech 1 Racing, from Mirko Bortolotti and Felipe Guimaraes (both Addax). Daniel Juncadella took eighth for Tech 1, and the pole for the Sunday sprint race.
Other championship favourites had a dismal time of things, with American driver Alex Rossi (ART) colliding with the Status GP car of Daniel Morad and Nico Muller being eliminated in an opening lap pile-up at the hairpin.
The sprint race was won by Gutierrez, who took his fourth win of the season behind the safety car after taking the lead of the race when poleman and early leader Juncadella made a mistake in the stadium section.
Juncadella took second from Coletti, Bortolotti, Wickens and ART's Pedro Nunes, but the race itself was dominated by a series of crashes.
The safety car was scrambled for the first time on the second lap, after a crash that saw Jenzer Motorsport's Simon Trummer launched over the top of another car. The accident left the Swiss driver with a fractured vertebrae, and he will miss the next round in Hungary.
Also in the wars was Jakes, who crashed in a botched passing attempt on Newgarden late on, which triggered the final safety car. He also looks set to miss the next round of the championship after damaging ligaments in his right arm.
The series will head to Hungary with Gutierrez leading Wickens in the championship by some 30 points, and he could theoretically secure the inaugural GP3 crown with the right results next weekend.
| Race 1 Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Robert Wickens | Status Grand Prix | 29:40.963 | 10 |
| 2 | James Jakes | Manor Racing | +2.395 | 8 |
| 3 | Renger van der Zande | RSC Mucke Motorsport | +3.579 | 6 |
| 4 | Esteban Gutierrez | ART Grand Prix | +4.000 | 5 |
| 5 | Stefano Coletti | Tech 1 Racing | +11.336 | 4 |
| 6 | Mirko Bortolotti | Barwa Addax Team | +11.903 | 3 |
| 7 | Felipe Guimaraes | Barwa Addax Team | +12.511 | 2 |
| 8 | Daniel Juncadella | Tech 1 Racing | +20.352 | 1 |
| 9 | Dean Smith | Carlin Motorsport | +20.972 | |
| 10 | Doru Sechelariu | Tech 1 Racing | +21.349 |
| Race 2 Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Esteban Gutierrez | ART Grand Prix | 32:14.652 | 6 |
| 2 | Daniel Juncadella | Tech 1 Racing | +0.357 | 5 |
| 3 | Stefano Coletti | Tech 1 Racing | +1.110 | 4 |
| 4 | Mirko Bortolotti | Barwa Addax Team | +1.684 | 3 |
| 5 | Robert Wickens | Status Grand Prix | +6.404 | 2 |
| 6 | Pedro Nunes | ART Grand Prix | +7.896 | 1 |
| 7 | Felipe Guimaraes | Barwa Addax Team | +8.635 | |
| 8 | Alexander Rossi | ART Grand Prix | +9.532 | |
| 9 | Daniel Morad | Status Grand Prix | +9.880 | |
| 10 | Michael Christiansen | MW Arden | +12.924 |
Drivers Championship after 10 of 16 rounds -
1 Gutierrez 64pts, 2 Wickens 34pts, 3 Rossi 26pts, 4 Nico Muller 23pts, 5 Rio Haryanto, Jakes 21pts, 7 Morad 15pts, 8 Roberto Merhi, Miki Monras 12pts, 10 Pal Varhaug, Smith 10pts, 12 Coletti, Guimaraes, Jean-Eric Vergne 9pts, 15 Lucas Foresti, Bortolotti 7pts, 17 Juncadella, van der Zande, Tobias Hegewald 6pts, 20 Nigel Melker 4pts, 21 Simon Trummer 3pts, 22 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Nunes, Josef Newgarden 2pts.
Teams Championship after 10 of 16 rounds -
1 ART Grand Prix 92pts, 2 Status GP 49pts, 3 Manor Racing 44pts, 4 Jenzer Motorsport 36pts, 5 Tech 1 Racing 24pts, 6 Carlin 19pts, 7 Addax Team, RSC Mucke 16pts, 9 ATECH CRS GP, MW Arden 12pts.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
