GP2 drivers to race on Valencia streets

Nine current GP2 racers will enter this weekend's GT races on the Valencia street circuit to learn the track ahead of the Formula One feeder series rounds at the new venue next month.

Championship leader Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering), Trident Racing pairing Mike Conway and Ho-Pin Tung, Pastor Maldonado (Piquet Sports) and Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS) will all drive Dodge Vipers.

GP2 race winner Luca Filippi (Arden) will drive an Aston Martin DBRS9, while Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) and Vitaly Petrov (Campos Racing) will share a Ferrari 430 GTS and Roldan Rodriguez (FMS) will drive a GT2 Ferrari 430GT.

"It should be a lot of fun, although the serious business is to learn the track," Conway told this week's Autosport. "I bet the regulars (GT drivers) are worried about us coming, it'll probably be a bit mad in the early laps. But it's important to keep the car in one piece so we can maximise our track time."

Maldonado said: "Although it's a street track, it's going to be a lot faster than somewhere like Monaco. It looks like it will be a real challenge."

His co-driver for next weekend, d'Ambrosio, added: "It will be strange that Pastor will be my teammate rather than my rival. If we all get together I think it'll be like a kart race, only with bumpers."

The GP2 drivers have been banned from competing in the Spanish Formula 3 rounds on the street circuit on the same weekend, but Super Nova's Andi Zuber will drive in the free practice sessions, believing that track time to be more valuable than GT races.

"This means I get an hour and three quarters of free practice time in a single-seater, that's like a week of going around in a GT car," he said.

New Valencia track secures GP2 race

First XI: MLS top tandems

Tactical change pays off for Revs

Chandhok wins Hockenheim sprint

Karun Chandhok overcame Lucas di Grassi and a strong challenge from Andi Zuber to win the GP2 sprint race at Hockenheim.

Although Chandhok started from pole, di Grassi made a rocket start from fourth on the grid and drove around the outside of the front row to take a commanding early lead.

But after two laps in front, di Grassi appeared to lose pace on the straights - possibly due to a recurrence of the gearbox problem that cost him fifth gear in yesterday's race. Chandhok drafted past him at the Parabolika, but di Grassi responded at the Spitzkehre and retook the lead.

Chandhok wasn't to be denied, however, and got him back again with a brave move at the kink before the Mercedes Arena. Zuber wasted little time in doing likewise, passing di Grassi at the same place a lap later.

Zuber closed the gap to Chandhok, but despite 19 laps of pressure, the Indian didn't look like cracking under pressure and clinched his first win of the year.

In fact, Bruno Senna came closer to Zuber than he was to Chandhok at the finish, Senna having charged past Alvaro Parente at the Spitzkehre on lap four.

It was also good news for Bruno in the championship: series leader Giorgio Pantano made a brilliant start, gaining two places at the start and another two at the hairpin on the opening lap. But his race was ended by broken steering after a collision with Andy Soucek at Spitzkehre on lap three.

"It was only the lightest of touches, I don't know why it broke," shrugged the Italian.

Di Grassi's race was ruined by an outrageous punt from behind by Pastor Maldonado at Spitzkehre, sending him spinning off the track at high speed.

That promoted Senna to third, and he spent the rest of the race catching Zuber. Romain Grosjean finished fourth after an awful first lap, which saw him drop as low as 10th. Javier Villa finished fifth, ahead of Parente.

Senna has closed the gap to Pantano in the championship to 15 points with four race weekends remaining.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Karun Chandhok iSport International 38:27.955 2. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports + 0.702 3. Bruno Senna iSport International + 1.274 4. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix + 4.947 5. Javier Villa Racing Engineering + 10.893 6. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing + 16.383 7. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing + 17.423 8. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden + 18.364 9. Mike Conway Trident Racing + 21.808 10. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 22.554 11. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 27.503 12. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Campos Team + 28.832 13. Marko Asmer FMS International + 34.160 14. Davide Valsecchi Durango + 34.854 15. Alberto Valerio Durango + 35.468 16. Roldan Rodriguez FMS International + 36.769 17. Carlos Iaconelli BCN Competicion + 41.765 18. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports + 46.526 19. Andy Soucek Super Nova Racing + 1 lap 20. Diego Nunes DPR + 1 lap Retirements:Driver Team Laps Sakon Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 20 Adrian Valles BCN Competicion 9 Lucas Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 7 Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 2 Michael Herck DPR 0 Luca Filippi Trust Team Arden 0

Pantano storms to Hockenheim pole

Quakes encouraged by road ahead

Grosjean wins hectic rain-affected race

Sealy trade gives K.C. options

Grosjean wins hectic rain-affected race

Romain Grosjean claimed his maiden GP2 Series feature race win by staying out on slick tyres and passing series leader Giorgio Pantano at Hockenheim on Saturday.

Grosjean, who won the sprint race in Turkey, won by 10 seconds but only hit the front with four laps remaining when a brief but heavy rain shower made the circuit incredibly treacherous. Pantano, who had a championship to think about, elected not to fight him too hard and risk crashing out.

Grosjean made his winning move, having tracked Pantano's every move for the first 35 and a half laps of dry action, at the Mercedes Arena. As the rain fell, some chose to switch to wet tyres, which was a very marginal decision.

This was proved by Javier Villa, who crashed out of third place just a couple of hundred yards from the finish having also elected to stay on dry tyres. He was joined seconds later by Andi Zuber, also on slicks, and joined a graveyard of cars that included long-time third placed runner Sebastien Buemi.

Alvaro Parente finished third, thanks to a sensational last lap, which included him losing the position to Bruno Senna when he ran wide at Spitzkehre, but grabbing it back later around the lap.

Senna, who had survived a massive spin at Mobil as the rain fell, finished fourth and the first of the wet-tyred runners, ahead of Lucas di Grassi (on wets) and Pastor Maldonado, who were neck and neck as they crossed the line.

Andy Soucek and Karun Chandhok (on wets) rounded out the point scorers.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Romain Grosjean ART 58:52.430 2. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering +10.996 3. Alvaro Parente Super Nova +54.244 4. Bruno Senna iSport +56.654 5. Lucas di Grassi Campos +60.201 6. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports +60.406 7. Andy Soucek Super Nova +61.764 8. Karun Chandhok iSport +79.413 9. Alberto Valerio Durango +1:07.474 10. Javier Villa Racing Engineering +1 lap 11. Andi Zuber Piquet Sports +1 lap 12. Sakon Yamamoto ART +1 lap 13. Ho-Pin Tung Trident +1 lap 14. Marko Asmer FMS +1 lap 15. Adrian Valles BCN +1 lap 16. Carlos Iaconelli BCN +1 lap 17. Michael Herck DPR +1 lap 18. Roldan Rodriguez FMS +2 laps Retirements Sebastien Buemi Arden 35 laps Mike Conway Trident 35 laps Vitaly Petrov Campos 35 laps Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 35 laps Luca Filippi Arden 33 laps Diego Nunes DPR 33 laps Davide Valsecchi Durango 23 laps Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 0 laps Fastest lap, Pantano 1:24.454 on lap 28

Kobayashi inherits sprint race win

Fire look to heat back up

Senna, Grosjean rue tech failures

Flag penalty costs Grosjean victory

Romain Grosjean was stripped of his GP2 feature race victory at Hockenheim on Saturday evening after being judged guilty of overtaking a backmarker under yellow flags.

GP2 race director Charlie Whiting ruled that Grosjean passed Marko Asmer in the stadium section of the track when yellow flags were being waved to recover several cars that went off during a rain shower towards the end of the race.

Grosjean argued that Asmer had been shown five blue flags before getting out of his way, but the incident was judged serious enough to warrant a 25-second penalty, dropping him to second place.

Series leader Giorgio Pantano inherits the victory, his fourth of the season, and extends his championship lead to 19 points over Bruno Senna.

Mike Conway, Jerome d'Ambrosio and Vitaly Petrov have also been penalised for failing to slow sufficiently for yellows and will all be demoted ten places down the grid for tomorrow's sprint race.

Miscue costs Red Bulls shot at win

Grosjean accepts stewards’ penalty

Pantano storms to Hockenheim pole

Giorgio Pantano produced a lap that his GP2 rivals had absolutely no answer to in qualifying at Hockenheim on Friday afternoon, taking pole by over a quarter of a second.

Pantano (Racing Engineering) regards Hockenheim as one of his favourite tracks, and was at the head of the times from the early going until Romain Grosjean (ART) lapped in 1:21.977 - despite tank-slapping across the finish line after running wide at the final corner.

For a while at least, Grosjean headed the times by 1.3 seconds, but Pantano had something in reserve. Halfway through the session the Italian unleashed a 1:21.650, faster than the rest by some three tenths of a second.

Grosjean tried to reassert himself, but ran wide at Turn 1 at his first attempt and only lowered his time to 1:21.934 on his final effort, which wasn't enough.

Andreas Zuber will start third for Piquet Sports, just missing out on the 1:21s club by four thousandths of a second. He was over a tenth clear of Sebastien Buemi (Arden), who was a thousandth quicker than fifth-placed man Lucas di Grassi (Campos).

Title challenger Bruno Senna had a disappointing session for iSport, and his recent streak of poles ended with sixth place, some six tenths off the pace.

Alvaro Parente will start seventh for Super Nova, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) who was unable to repeat his front-running form of free practice.

Javier Villa, who bounced back from an engine problem in practice for Racing Engineering, and Vitaly Petrov (Campos) rounded out the top 10.

Just outside it was Karun Chandhok (iSport) and perhaps the surprise of the session: Sakon Yamamoto (ART) outqualified Luca Filippi (Arden) in the drive Filippi had walked away from.

Pastor Maldonado was 15th for Piquet Sports, after another terribly scrappy session, and Mike Conway was 20th after Trident did a good job of rebuilding his car after he crashed in free practice.

The weather forecast for tomorrow's feature race is rain.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pantano Racing Engineering 1:21.650 14 2. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:21.934 + 0.284 13 3. Zuber Piquet Sports 1:22.004 + 0.354 14 4. Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:22.171 + 0.521 15 5. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 1:22.172 + 0.522 14 6. Senna iSport International 1:22.216 + 0.566 16 7. Parente Super Nova Racing 1:22.391 + 0.741 15 8. Kobayashi Dams 1:22.459 + 0.809 17 9. Villa Racing Engineering 1:22.560 + 0.910 16 10. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1:22.587 + 0.937 12 11. Chandhok iSport International 1:22.759 + 1.109 17 12. Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:22.788 + 1.138 17 13. Filippi Trust Team Arden 1:22.802 + 1.152 15 14. D'ambrosio Dams 1:22.907 + 1.257 18 15. Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:22.969 + 1.319 17 16. Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:22.992 + 1.342 17 17. Tung Trident Racing 1:23.264 + 1.614 16 18. Valsecchi Durango 1:23.320 + 1.670 15 19. Valerio Durango 1:23.378 + 1.728 18 20. Conway Trident Racing 1:23.433 + 1.783 19 21. Nunes DPR 1:23.434 + 1.784 14 22. Rodriguez FMS International 1:23.497 + 1.847 15 23. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:23.913 + 2.263 16 24. Asmer FMS International 1:24.011 + 2.361 16 25. Valles BCN Competicion 1:24.273 + 2.623 12 26. Herck DPR 1:24.641 + 2.991 16

RSL to host 2009 MLS All-Star game

Beckham leads All-Star fan voting

Grosjean leads Silverstone practice

Grosjean sets practice pace

Galaxy confident even without stars

Pantano tops Istanbul free practice

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

Pantano raves about 'perfect lap'

GP2 Series leader Giorgio Pantano expressed his delight at extending his advantage by scoring two points for pole position at Hockenheim on Friday.

The Italian outpaced his opposition by almost three tenths of a second, and said that changes made by his Racing Engineering team had been key to his dominance.

"We did a good job after free practice," said Pantano. "I had a good feeling in the car and drove a perfect lap. We were even able to save some of the tyres for the race, so that is good too."

His closest rival, Romain Grosjean of ART, admitted: "Giorgio was better than us today. I made a little mistake at the final corner on my first run, and got onto the grass, and the track wasn't so fast for my second run. I was fractions faster, but I needed to find a lot more time to challenge Giorgio."

Third fastest qualifier Andi Zuber has sounded a note of caution after recent performances by Piquet Sports have flattered to deceive after qualifying - especially on the medium compound Bridgestone tyres.

"The car is very difficult to drive," said Zuber. "And after two or three laps, the tyres are finished. We saw it at Silverstone, and we're working hard to solve it. I made a slight mistake in the final corner on my quickest lap, but Giorgio did a very good time - I couldn't do that today."

Razov’s perfect strike stuns Quakes

Pantano wins to retake series lead

D.C.’s snake-bitten ride continues

Pantano, Chandhok given all-clear

Pantano grabs pole, Valsecchi shunts

Dynamo open SuperLiga with rout