Sunday, June 22, 2008

Buemi leads Arden one-two in sprint

Buemi leads Arden one-two in sprint

Sebastien Buemi defeated Arden teammate Yelmer Buurman in a topsy-turvy GP2 Series sprint race at Magny-Cours on Sunday morning, with their gamble of starting on slick tyres paying dividends as the damp track dried out.

The majority of the grid started on wet rubber, so Mike Conway led from pole with Jerome d'Ambrosio jumping ahead of Karun Chandhok to take second. Chandhok lost further places to Campos duo Vitaly Petrov and Lucas di Grassi at the hairpin, and then spun at the 180-degree bend.

D'Ambrosio went off at Estoril at the start of lap two, and would later clash with Chandhok, putting him out.

By lap four, those on slick tyres were lapping quicker than those at the front, which sparked a flurry of pitstops for the wet-runners. Petrov braved it out on wets at the front, but even he pitted for slicks on lap nine - just when it started to rain again...

The shower was brief, so those who had started on slicks were in the box seat. Buurman took up the lead, chased by Super Nova's Alvaro Parente and Buemi. Bruno Senna was next up, despite a spin at 180.

Buemi took second when Parente slid wide at Lycee, and then chased down Buurman, who held a six second lead at one point. Four laps later, they were nose-to-tail, and after Buurman slid wide at Estoril, the Arden cars raced side-by-side into the Adelaide hairpin, where Buemi hit the front.

He pulled away to a 6.6-second win ahead of Buurman. Luca Filippi came out of the pack to snatch third, as Parente dropped out with a mechanical failure, while Senna limped home fifth, losing a spot in the closing stages to di Grassi as his gearbox selector barrel began to malfunction. Conway scored the final point in sixth.

Points leader Giorgio Pantano retired after a clash with Petrov damaged his car. He now leads the standings by seven points.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 43:08.504 2. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden + 6.639 3. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix + 23.953 4. Lucas Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team + 24.479 5. Bruno Senna iSport International + 29.439 6. Mike Conway Trident Racing + 35.924 7. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports + 38.074 8. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports + 43.060 9. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 45.558 10. Javier Villa Racing Engineering + 46.756 11. Marko Asmer FMS International + 52.901 12. Adrian Valles BCN Competicion + 1 lap 13. Carlos Iaconelli BCN Competicion + 1 lap 14. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing + 2 laps 15. Michael Herck DPR + 2 laps 16. Roldan Rodriguez FMS International + 2 laps 17. Alberto Valério Durango + 2 laps 18. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Campos Team + 3 laps Retirements:Driver Team Laps Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 24 Benjamin Hanley Durango 24 Diego Nunes DPR 21 Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 14 Karun Chandhok iSport International 13 Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 6 Andy Soucek Super Nova Racing 2 Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 2

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