Sunday, September 7, 2008

Maldonado takes last-gasp victory

Maldonado takes last-gasp victory

Pastor Maldonado nicked a last-lap GP2 sprint race victory from home hero Jerome d'Ambrosio at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday morning.

D'Ambrosio led for 17-and-a-half of the 18 laps, only for Maldonado to blast past him into Les Combes to record a fine win from sixth on the grid.

D'Ambrosio, who took reverse grid pole thanks to the exclusion of Andi Zuber from yesterday's race, had fended off the early challenge of Andy Soucek, who would later crash out at Stavelot.

Maldonado had to work his way past Alvaro Parente - who would also crash heavily at the Bus Stop- Vitaly Petrov, Sebastien Buemi and Soucek before he made his crucial final move on d'Ambrosio.

D'Ambrosio finished second, ahead of Petrov, Buemi and Lucas di Grassi. Kamui Kobayashi crossed the line sixth, but stole the final point from Davide Valsecchi by cutting the Bus Stop on the final lap.

Yesterday's winner Romain Grosjean spun at Stavelot and could only finish 10th.

Title protagonist Bruno Senna blew his chance to eat into the absent Giorgio Pantano's title lead. He spun at the Bus Stop after clipping Buemi just as he was poised to enter the point-paying positions, and retired with a broken front wing.

Senna will go into the Monza finale 11 points behind Pantano.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Maldonado Piquet Sports 39:35.698 2. D'Ambrosio Dams + 1.256 3. Petrov Barwa Campos Team + 5.439 4. Buemi Trust Team Arden + 6.390 5. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team + 7.222 6. Kobayashi Dams + 7.890 7. Valsecchi Durango + 8.213 8. Chandhok iSport International + 8.767 9. Villa Racing Engineering + 12.199 10. Grosjean ART Grand Prix + 16.317 11. Tung Trident Racing + 17.065 12. Herck DPR + 18.351 13. Iaconelli BCN Competicion + 20.023 14. Valles BCN Competicion + 20.350 Retirements: Driver Team Laps Soucek Super Nova Racing 15 Filippi Trust Team Arden 12 Asmer FMS International 10 Senna iSport International 9 Nunes DPR 7 Parente Super Nova Racing 5 Valerio Durango 5 Conway Trident Racing 4 Rodriguez FMS International 4 Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 2 Zuber Piquet Sports 1 Fastest lap: Maldonado, 1:58.860 on lap 5

  • Petrov inherits victory in Valencia
  • RSL left wanting more after draw
  • Red Bulls keep focus on winning
  • Carver takes loss as benchmark


  • Petrov inherits victory in Valencia
  • RSL left wanting more after draw
  • Red Bulls keep focus on winning
  • Carver takes loss as benchmark
  • No comments: