Amidst the obvious excitement of the F1 championship finale in Abu Dhabi, the final round of the 2010 GP2 Series also took place at the Yas Marina circuit this weekend, with the drivers free to race with the title already wrapped up.
The GP2 Series finale was an odd even this year, taking place a good few months after the penultimate round at the Monza circuit during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.Normally, the Abu Dhabi race might have been expected to form part of the winter GP2 Asia Series, but with that championship also set to use Dallara's newest generation GP2 car this winter, the schedule was pushed back to February 2011 to allow the Italian company time to get the 26 cars ready for action.
So, then, this weekend served as a denouement for the second-generation chassis, as well as for Bridgestone. And it also gave the drivers one last chance to impress the watching F1 teams ahead of next week's young driver F1 test.
The championship had already been secured by Pastor Maldonado in Italy, so the gloves were off for the drivers in the final two races of the year. And they provided plenty of entertainment for the watching fans.
Driver Changes
There were few driver changes for the final rounds of the series, which was slightly surprising given the massive length of time between the previous rounds and the Abu Dhabi weekend. Josef Kral, the Czech driver injured in a crash at the Valencia round, returned to his Super Nova seat in place of stand-in Luca Filippi, while DAMS refugee Ho-Pin Tung took over Christian Vietoris's old seat at Racing Engineering.
Elsewhere, former GP2 Asia driver and 2010 GP3 frontrunner James Jakes took over from Alvaro Parente at the Scuderia Coloni squad, and series debutant Federico Leo came in for Edoardo Piscopo at the Trident team.
Qualifying
With the championship frontrunners possibly feeling a little rusty after a couple of months twiddling their thumbs on the sidelines, quite a few of the usual suspects failed to impress in qualifying, and it was iSport driver and already-confirmed McLaren young driver test driver Oliver Turvey that took his first pole position of the season.
He ended half a second clear of the rest of the field, after somehow pulling a blinding last run out of the bag.
His advantage was further cemented after the session when second-fastest qualifier Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) was handed a ten-place grid penalty for ignoring a pit lane red light at the end of the session. That promoted Sergio Perez (Addax) into second place, giving him a decisive advantage in the fight for the runner-up spot behind Pastor Maldonado.
Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing), Davide Valsecchi (iSport), Luis Razia (Rapax) and Romain Grosjean (DAMS) completed the rest of the top six. As for the champion, Maldonado could only qualify 15th, and was relegated further back when he was also penalised for ignoring the red light.
Abu Dhabi GP2 Grid Positions -
1 Oliver Turvey (iSport) 1:48.559, 2 Sergio Perez (Barwa Addax) +0.522, 3 Fabio Leimer (Ocean) +0.589, 4 Davide Valsecchi (iSport) +0.748, 5 Luiz Razia (Rapax) +0.851, 6 Romain Grosjean (DAMS) +0.903, 7 Adrian Zaugg (Trident) +1.253, 8 Max Chilton (Ocean) +1.331, 9 Dani Clos (Racing Eng) +0.476*, 10 Michael Herck (DPR) +1.601, 11 Fabrizio Crestani (DPR) +1.680, 12 Jules Bianchi (ART) +0.779*, 13 Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden) +1.990, 14 Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax) +0.870* , 15 Josef Kral (Super Nova) +2.000, 16 Brendon Hartley (Coloni) +2.009, 17 Sam Bird (ART) +1.065*, 18 Charles Pic (Arden) +2.010, 19 Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova) +2.160, 20 James Jakes (Coloni) +2.342, 21 Pastor Maldonado (Rapax) +1.803*, 22 Ho-Pin Tung (Racing Eng) +2.502, 23 Federico Leo (Trident) +3.611, 24 Jerome D'Ambrosio (DAMS) +2.171*.
* - Indicates ten place grid penalty for ignoring red light in pit lane.
Feature Race
The final feature race of the season was dominated by Sergio Perez, after he beat poleman Turvey on the run down to the first corner, and controlled proceedings from then on. It was easily his best performance of the season, possibly of his GP2 career, and served as a handy way to try and insist his 2011 Sauber drive isn't simply down to the sponsors he is bringing.
Perez led into turn one, with Turvey surviving a major wheel-banging moment with Leimer to take second from the fast-starting Grosjean, up from row three to grab third from the inconvenienced Leimer. After an early safety car period, Perez then pulled out an unassailable lead, to ensure that he would finish as the runner-up in the 2010 championship.
He was only headed during the mandatory pit stop window, when he dropped temporarily back down the order, but as everyone completed their tyre changes, he resumed his dominant lead, and eventually beat Turvey to the chequered flag by a margin over 20 seconds.
Behind the quiet front two, there was plenty of action, with Grosjean falling back after his strong start after losing time in a botched pit stop, and two of the penalised men from qualifying enjoying strong comebacks. Sam Bird came up from 17th on the grid to produce a storming drive to third place, while Dani Clos finished 4th, having started 9th.
There was late drama when Clos attempted to grab third from Bird with a wild lunge, but he narrowly avoided taking out the ART driver as he ran deep into one of the hairpin corners with his brakes locked up on the final lap.
Valsecchi came home in fifth, having been passed by Bird and Clos in the closing stages, ahead of Grosjean, who ended up finishing where he started in 6th. Virgin test driver Luiz Razia (Rapax) and the returning Josef Kral completed the points paying positions, with Kral taking pole for the reverse grid sprint race, holding off Brendon Hartley over the final laps.
Valsecchi also ended the points hopes of Leimer, who survived a dodgy opening lap to run fourth early on, but was clipped by Valsecchi as he attempted an optimistic overtaking move on lap four. Leimer pitted and retired from the damage caused three laps later.
Meanwhile, the champion had an underwhelming race, with Maldonado given a drive-through penalty early on in the race for overtaking behind the safety car. There was controversy surrounding the penalty, after replays showed that he had made the move under view of a trackside green light, but the stewards insisted that the penalty would stand.
Maldonado eventually served his drive through with a handful of laps to go, after a lengthy argument between his team and the stewards, and he dropped way back to 17th place when he completed his mandatory stop late-on.
Elsewhere, Ferrari tester Jules Bianchi had an incident-packed race, surviving some opening lap fun before bumping into Max Chilton (Ocean Racing) in a dubious overtaking move on lap 5, rejoining in last place and failing to make much progress after that.
| Feature Race Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Sergio Perez | Barwa Addax Team | 59:53.752 | 10 |
| 2 | Oliver Turvey | iSport International | +21.065 | 8 |
| 3 | Sam Bird | ART Grand Prix | +29.695 | 6 |
| 4 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | +30.442 | 5 |
| 5 | Davide Valsecchi | iSport International | +36.614 | 4 |
| 6 | Romain Grosjean | DAMS | +38.175 | 3 |
| 7 | Luiz Razia | Rapax Team | +39.196 | 2 |
| 8 | Josef Kral | Super Nova Racing | +39.724 | 1 |
| 9 | Brendon Hartley | Scuderia Coloni | +40.679 | |
| 10 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Arden International | +49.704 |
11 Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova Racing) +55.360, 12 Max Chilton (Ocean Racing Technology) +57.925, 13 Fabrizio Crestani (DPR) +58.334, 14 Jerome D'Ambrosio (DAMS) +58.836, 15 James Jakes (Scuderia Coloni) +1:01.227, 16 Michael Herck (DPR) +1:02.178, 17 Pastor Maldonado (Rapax Team) +1:14.109, 18 Jules Bianchi (ART Grand Prix) +1:29.646, 19 Federico Leo (Trident Racing) +1:36.305, 20 Charles Pic (Arden International) +1 lap, R Ho-Pin Tung (Racing Engineering) 11 laps, R Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing Technology) 7 laps, R Adrian Zaugg (Trident Racing) 0 laps, R Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax Team) 0 laps.
Sprint Race
The sprint race saw Kral start from pole, but he proved as incapable of keeping the lead to the first corner as Turvey had on Saturday, as he was swamped through the first corner.
It was Valsecchi who grabbed the lead on the exit of the first corner, after Grosjean and Razia had initially led the pack bast Kral. But Razia ran off the track and then rejoined aggressively, inconveniencing Grosjean and allowing Valsecchi to power past through turn two.
So, Valsecchi led from Razia and Grosjean, and then controlled the rest of the race despite pressure from the Virgin test driver throughout. The win was the Italian driver's first win in the main GP2 series since the final round of the 2008 season, after he had dominated the Asia Series over the winter.
Razia took second place, well clear of Grosjean in third, who finished just ahead of a marauding Dani Clos, who just missed out on taking third place in the standings from ART's Jules Bianchi. Polesitter Kral and race one podium man Turvey took the final points of the season.
Razia may have missed out on the win, but his five points for second place was enough for his team to win the team's championship, winning a three-way battle with Addax and ART for the title.
Elsewhere, it was another dismal race for the champion, with Maldonado starting well down the grid after his feature race issues and fighting through to take 10th. The result meant that Maldonado failed to score a single point in the final six races of the championship.
Perez also had a dire race, retiring after making a dubious attempt at an overtaking move on Bird early on. Bird was also eliminated in the clash, ending his own hopes of a top three finish in the championship.
The sixth season of GP2 action has produced a mixed bag of results, and a veteran journeyman champion, rather than a new young superstar. But at least it remained entertaining. The new breed of Dallara GP2 cars and teams will return to action in early February with the start of a brief Asia Series, while the main championship will return from the Spanish GP round next year.
| Sprint Race Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Davide Valsecchi | iSport International | 49:59.120 | 6 |
| 2 | Luiz Razia | Rapax Team | +0.925 | 5 |
| 3 | Romain Grosjean | DAMS | +5.107 | 4 |
| 4 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | +5.597 | 3 |
| 5 | Josef Kral | Super Nova Racing | +17.853 | 2 |
| 6 | Oliver Turvey | iSport International | +21.516 | 1 |
| 7 | Brendon Hartley | Scuderia Coloni | +21.924 | |
| 8 | Jules Bianchi | ART Grand Prix | +22.567 | |
| 9 | Jerome d'Ambrosio | DAMS | +24.655 | |
| 10 | Pastor Maldonado | Rapax Team | +25.171 |
11 Michael Herck (DPR) +25.672, 12 Charles Pic (Arden International) +31.924, 13 Max Chilton (Ocean Racing Technology) +35.401, 14 Ho-Pin Tung (Racing Engineering) +36.654, 15 Fabrizio Crestani (DPR) +37.828, 16 Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing Technology) +38.401, 17 Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden International) +38.964, 18 James Jakes (Scuderia Coloni) +51.778, 19 Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax Team) +1:16.380, R Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova Racing) +4 Laps, R Federico Leo (Trident Racing) +12 Laps, R Sam Bird (ART Grand Prix) +18 Laps, R Sergio Perez (Barwa Addax Team) +18 Laps, R Adrian Zaugg (Trident Racing) +22 Laps.
Drivers Championship after 20 of 20 rounds -
1 Maldonado 87pts (champion), 2 Perez 71pts, 3 Bianchi 53pts, 4 Clos 51pts, 5 Bird, Turvey 48pts, 7 van der Garde 39pts, 8 Valsecchi 31pts, 9 Christian Vietoris 29pts, 10 Pic 28pts, 11 Razia 27pts, 12 d'Ambrosio 21pts, 13 Giacomo Ricci 16pts, 14 Grosjean 14pts, 15 Alvaro Parente 13pts, 16 Herck 12pts, 17 Ericsson 11pts, 18 Zaugg 9pts, 19 Leimer 8pts, 20 Luca Filippi 5pts, 21 Gonzalez, Alberto Valerio 4pts, 23 Johnny Cecotto Jr, Kral, Chilton 3pts, 26 Edoardo Piscopo 2pts.
Teams Championship after 20 of 20 rounds -
1 Rapax Team 114pts (champions), 2 Barwa Addax Team 110pts, 3 ART Grand Prix 101pts, 4 Racing Engineering 80pts, 5 iSport International 79pts, 6 DAMS 35pts, 7 Arden International 32pts, 8 DPR 28pts, 9 Super Nova Racing 19pts, 10 Scuderia Coloni 19pts, 11 Trident Racing 14pts, 12 Ocean Racing Technology 11pts.
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