Saturday, July 19, 2008

Grosjean sets practice pace

Romain Grosjean topped the times in free practice for the GP2 Series round at Hockenheim in Germany.

The Renault F1 protege just pipped his Toyota equivalent, Kamui Kobayashi, by 0.067 seconds. Grosjean (ART Grand Prix) lapped the track in 1:22.782, this despite a huge slide at the Mobil Kurve that he was lucky to hang on to.

Kobayashi (DAMS) set the early pace, yet was one of the few drivers to improve on his second run, as a light drizzle was falling on an otherwise dry track.

Series leader Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) was third quickest, and produced a rare error when he hit the apex kerb too hard at the Mercedes Arena and spun late on.

Lucas di Grassi (Campos) improved to fourth fastest with a lap late in the session, which pipped the closely matched Andi Zuber (Piquet Sports) and Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS).

Sebastien Buemi (Arden) and Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) were next up, with Villa out of his car before the end of the session with an apparent engine problem. Rounding out the top 10 were iSport twins Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok.

The session was punctuated by spins and crashes, starting straight away with Andy Soucek (Super Nova) spinning at the Mobil Kurve. Seconds later, Mike Conway (Trident) did likewise, but managed to make it all the way into the concrete wall, via smashing the marker board, crushing his front-right suspension.

Arden new-boy Luca Filippi spun at the North Kurve on his first flying lap, but somehow managed to restart after stalling and rejoin the session. He finished it outside the top 10, however.

ART newcomer Sakon Yamamoto spun at Turn 2, while Piquet Sports' Pastor Maldonado looked like an accident waiting to happen all session. After a big moment at Turn 1, a gravelly off at Mobil, he finally put his car in the barriers on the exit of the North Kurve after a massive spin.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:22.782 15 2. Kobayashi Dams 1:22.849 + 0.067 19 3. Pantano Racing Engineering 1:23.136 + 0.354 15 4. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 1:23.290 + 0.508 15 5. Zuber Piquet Sports 1:23.354 + 0.572 12 6. D'ambrosio Dams 1:23.374 + 0.592 17 7. Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:23.514 + 0.732 18 8. Villa Racing Engineering 1:23.676 + 0.894 8 9. Senna iSport International 1:23.705 + 0.923 17 10. Chandhok iSport International 1:23.831 + 1.049 16 11. Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:23.851 + 1.069 13 12. Parente Super Nova Racing 1:23.909 + 1.127 16 13. Tung Trident Racing 1:23.967 + 1.185 18 14. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1:24.005 + 1.223 16 15. Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:24.012 + 1.230 12 16. Valles BCN Competicion 1:24.090 + 1.308 17 17. Filippi Trust Team Arden 1:24.339 + 1.557 14 18. Rodriguez FMS International 1:24.397 + 1.615 18 19. Asmer FMS International 1:24.582 + 1.800 8 20. Valerio Durango 1:24.637 + 1.855 17 21. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:24.810 + 2.028 16 22. Nunes DPR 1:24.820 + 2.038 18 23. Valsecchi Durango 1:24.915 + 2.133 17 24. Herck DPR 1:25.936 + 3.154 16 25. Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:27.243 + 4.461 11 26. Conway Trident Racing No time 2

  • Galaxy confident even without stars
  • Return bittersweet for Twellman
  • Pantano tops Istanbul free practice
  • Pantano storms to Hockenheim pole
  • RSL to host 2009 MLS All-Star game
  • No comments: