This weekend at the Valencia Street Circuit we have experienced a few interesting careers on the occasion of the GP2 Europe 2011 ; Romain Grosjean strengthens as leader of the Championship, after the victory in Saturday's race, Esteban Gutierrez won his first race on Sunday. The two races saw overtaking and struggles, in contrast to what was seen during the formula 1 race.
We arrived at Valencia after the weekend's Monaco with many drivers near the head of the Championship, and one of them, Charles Pic, struggled before departure, despite having achieved the pole. Bad luck for the French driver, who thus lost a great opportunity to position itself as leader of the Championship. Who take advantage of this circumstance would be his teammate.
Giedo van der Garde maintained the lead of the race, a start which saw an accident between Jules Bianchi and Marcus Ericsson, on the one hand, and another between Fabio Leimer and Alvaro Parente on the other hand. He had to leave the safety car to give time to the Commissioners to withdraw the car accident, but soon the race returned to be launched. Dani Clos, filming in third position after a fantastic start.
After the compulsory pit stops, an aggressive Luca Filippi movement ended with a touch with Dani Clos. Initially it seemed that Catalan did not have any problem arising out of the event, but when came the final laps, his right rear tire, which was the one who hit Filippi, began to lose pressure, and made him much lower pace, losing a podium more than deserved.
At the same time, during the yellow flags that released by the touch between Clos and Philippi, Van der Garde continued rolling at high rate, improving its partial. This meant a drive through (during yellow flag periods there is the so-called "Delta Time" can not be downgraded; if it is cut, this means a penalty). The Dutch pilot had to recover from the fifth position, and managed to reach second.
Dani Clos could have been second, but the low tire pressure did he could never come to attack Davide Valsecchi and in the end, which was also surpassed by a Giedo van der Garde in full recovery. Although a fourth position was a good result, I knew a little, especially for having lost a podium because of another driver. Nevertheless, the Racing Engineering was animated for the race on Sunday.
The sprint race had little history; Esteban Gutierrez, who came from the second position, took advantage of a mistake of Josef Kral in bars initials and became head, position not left until the end of the race. Romain Grosjean had to leave after a touch with Charles Pic and Rodolfo Gonzalez, a fact that behave ten positions of penalty on the grid Silverstone.
Luiz Razia also failed with Josef Kral, although he could not keep to an unleashed Gutierrez, premiered as the winner of the European GP2 before his teammate, Jules Bianchi. Giedo van der Garde back from seventh place to an interesting third place, ahead of Davide Valsecchi and Dani Clos, who could have fought for the podium, but began to lose pace in the final laps and finished in fifth position.
1 Romain Grosjean DAMS 58m19.400s
2 Giedo van der Garde Addax + 15. 481s
3. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia + 20. 901s
4. dani Clos racing engineering + 24. 010s
5 Sam Bird iSport + 24. 323s
6 Luiz Ghazw AirAsia + 24. 495s
7 Esteban Gutierrez ART + 48. 097s
8 Josef Kral Arden + 51. 064s
9 Jolyon Palmer burn + 53. 632s
10 Michael Herck Coloni + 57. 032s
11 Julian Leal Rapax + 58. 041s
12. Kevin Mirocha Ocean + 58. 567s
13 Pal Varhaug DAMS + 1m06.416s
14 Johnny Cecotto Ocean + 1m12.085s
15 Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 1m20.090s
16 Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova + 1m25.296s
17. Stefano Coletti Trident + 1m44.986s
18. Kevin Ceccon Coloni + 1 lap
Drop-outs:
Max Chilton Carlin 23 laps
Christian Vietoris racing engineering 15 laps
Luca Filippi Super Nova 14 laps
Charles Pic Addax 13 laps
Jules Bianchi ART 0 laps
Marcus Ericsson iSport 0 laps
Alvaro Parente Carlin 0 laps
Fabio Leimer Rapax 0 laps
1 Esteban Gutierrez ART 43m34.905s
2 Luiz Ghazw AirAsia + 12. 995s
3 Giedo van der Garde Addax + 13. 842s
4. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia + 26. 633s
5. dani Clos racing engineering + 30. 130s
6 Michael Herck Coloni + 30. 374s
7 Jules Bianchi ART + 34. 651s
8. Kevin Mirocha Ocean + 34. 677s
9 Julian Leal Rapax + 36. 728s
10 Pal Varhaug DAMS + 37. 615s
11 Marcus Ericsson iSport + 40. 932s
12 Sam Bird iSport + 42. 599s
13 Christian Vietoris racing engineering + 44. 840s
14 Fabio Leimer Rapax + 46. 014s
15 Luca Filippi Super Nova + 46. 777s
16 Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova + 57. 433s
17 Johnny Cecotto Ocean + 1m08.309s
18. Alvaro Parente Carlin + 1m11.936s
Drop-outs:
Stefano Coletti Trident 21 laps
Kevin Ceccon Coloni 21 laps
Josef Kral Arden 14 laps
Jolyon Palmer Arden 14 laps
Max Chilton Carlin 3 laps
Charles Pic Addax 0 laps
Romain Grosjean DAMS 0 laps
Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident 0 laps
1 - Romain Grosjean - 34pts
2 - Giedo van der Garde - 33pts
3 - Davide Valsecchi - 30pts
4 Bird Sam - 27pts
5 Charles Pic - 24pts
6 - dani Clos - 16pts
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