Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Parente romps to win on debut

Parente romps to win on debut

Alvaro Parente made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the season opener at Barcelona on Saturday, winning the feature race for Super Nova on his category debut.

The Renault World Series champion led from start to finish, taking control after poleman Pastor Maldonado stalled at the start. Parente made his mandatory pitstop when the safety car appeared on lap two, and rejoined at the head of the field.

Bruno Senna took second from Andi Zuber during the frantic early pitstops, with both of them almost colliding with cars that were still coming in as they departed. There was initial confusion when the safety car appeared, as it failed to pick up the leaders. They then pitted, meaning it took even longer for them to catch up with it again.

At the restart on lap seven, Senna timed his run to perfection to get a tow from Parente going into Turn 1. The Portuguese defended his lead, however, and that's as close as Senna got to pasing him.

That didn't mean the race at the front was boring: Senna hounded Parente for the remaining 31 laps. Parenta just never gave him the opportunity to pass and he clung on by half a second despite Senna's best efforts.

Zuber finished third, less than a second behind Senna, while Giorgio Pantano took fourth. Romain Grosjean stormed through the field to finish fifth from 11th on the grid. Vitaly Petrov finished sixth, losing his place cheaply to Grosjean after he ran through the gravel.

Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi rounded out the point scorers, both taking advantage as Adrian Valles, who ran as high as fifth early on, slipped back through the order when he rooted his tyres. Valles pitted for more rubber and set the fastest lap on the final tour - but it won't count for a point as he had to finish in the top 10 for it to count.

Karun Chandhok finished just out of the points in ninth, which was harsh as he'd been running fourth when he was forced to stack behind teammate Senna in the pits.

Maldonado was forced to start from the pitlane after his stall, and the safety car helped him gain ground. He stormed his way through the pack, passing car after car, until he used too much of his tyres, and having fought up to 10th, he then slipped back down the order to finish 12th.

The safety car was required for a multiple pile-up at Turn 1, which started when Christian Bakkerud hit Ben Halney into a spin, and heavy contact behind sent Roldan Rodriguez flying over Ho-Pin Tung. Mike Conway was also an early retirement on the start/finish straight, and his car had to be retrieved too.

Pos Driver Team Gap 1. Alvaro Parente Super Nova 1:01:09.902 2. Bruno Senna iSport +0.579 3. Andi Zuber Piquet Sports +1.511 4. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering +3.768 5. Romain Grosjean ART +8.155 6. Vitaly Petrov Campos +19.729 7. Sebastien Buemi Arden +27.326 8. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS +27.945 9. Karun Chandhok iSport +30.394 10. Davide Valsecchi Durango +34.573 11. Luca Filippi ART +34.816 12. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports +38.600 13. Alberto Valerio Durango +42.489 14. Javier Villa Racing Engineering +43.200 15. Diego Nunes DPR +1:09.867 16. Giacomo Ricci DPR +1:10.152 17. Paolo Nocera BCN +1:08.749 18. Adrian Valles FMS +1:08.778 Not classified Driver Team Laps Christian Bakkerud Super Nova 20 laps Yelmer Buurman Arden 18 laps Ben Hanley Campos 15 laps Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 15 laps Roldan Rodriguez FMS 4 laps Ho-Pin Tung Trident 1 lap Mike Conway Trident 0 laps Milos Pavlovic BCN 0 laps Fastest lap, Valles 1:30.357 on lap 38

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