93 replies to this topic

[gio66]

Free practice

1. Zuber - Piquet Sports - 1'28.130
2. Maldonado - Piquet Sports - 1'28.428
3. Parente - Super Nova - 1'28.640
4. Filippi - ART - 1'28.794
5. Pantano - Racing Engineering - 1'28.808
6. Senna - iSport - 1'28.884
7. Petrov - Barwa Int. Campos Racing - 1'28.908
8. Conway - Trident - 1'28.936
9. Grosjean - ART - 1'29.145
10. Valsecchi - Durango - 1'29.195
11. Kobayashi - DAMS - 1'29.436
12. Hanley - Barwa Int. Campos Racing - 1'29.516
13. Pavlovic - BCN - 1'29.592
14. Valerio - Durango - 1'29.655
15. Valles - FMSI - 1'29.703
16. Tung - Trident - 1'29.867
17. Bakkerud - Super Nova - 1'29.911
18. Villa - Racing Engineering - 1'30.094
19. Nocera - BCN - 1'30.380
20. Buurman - Trust Team Arden - 1'30.399
21. Buemi - Trust Team Arden - 1'30.493
22. Chandhok - iSport - 1'30.666
23. Nunes - DPR - 1'30.911
24. Ricci - DPR - 1'31'077
25. Rodriguez - FMSI - 1'31.256
26. D'Ambrosio - DAMS - NC

[noikeee]

I'm glad Parente is on the speed from the beginning. The Piquets are looking scary too, I guess the testing form was for real.

FP means very little though, qualy will be more interesting a litte later today.

[gio66]

I think Parente needs only much money.

He's one of the better young drivers in the paddock, but... no money, no party...

[noikeee]

I think he's past that stage, to be honest. I mean, last year he nearly missed out on a WSR ride, and only managed to get one with the team that had finished last the year before. According to some news he ran out of money during the season and Tech1 didn't sack him only out of sympathy, as the results were so good. Ended up as the champion!

Now he has a very good managing agency, well at least it is for footballers, and thanks to them he has found sponsors which can be seen on the car (Soccerade and Delta for example). He has done well in a F1 test. He has a ride in GP2 with a pretty good team, with a team-mate that won't give him any headaches. Seems like a much better situation, and I'm optimistic about his career now...

[gio66]

I'm optimist too.

I've seen it in Monaco last year: very very impressive.

[tidytracks]

Originally posted by paranoik0
I think he's past that stage, to be honest. I mean, last year he nearly missed out on a WSR ride, and only managed to get one with the team that had finished last the year before. According to some news he ran out of money during the season and Tech1 didn't sack him only out of sympathy, as the results were so good. Ended up as the champion!

Now he has a very good managing agency, well at least it is for footballers, and thanks to them he has found sponsors which can be seen on the car (Soccerade and Delta for example). He has done well in a F1 test. He has a ride in GP2 with a pretty good team, with a team-mate that won't give him any headaches. Seems like a much better situation, and I'm optimistic about his career now...

I agree to one extent, but in GP2 it's always a benefit to have two quick drivers to aid the development curve. ART had it nailed in the first two years with a strong lead driver (Rosberg and Hamilton) and a quick second driver (Premat). They lost that in the third year with the revolving door of Red Bull drivers to partner di Grassi. Now they have that back again with Grosjean and Filippi.

One ace in Parente's sleeve however is Sean Thompson, who will be engineering him this year. That guy just seems to get the GP2 car, and I reckon together they could make a very good team.

Just hope Bakkerud is able to keep pace and the team is able to move forward as one.

[gio66]

Originally posted by tidytracks
ART had it nailed in the first two years with a strong lead driver (Rosberg and Hamilton) and a quick second driver (Premat). They lost that in the third year with the revolving door of Red Bull drivers to partner di Grassi.

I think that ART has lost especially Hamilton. In my opinion this was the cause of defeat in 2007.

[F1Fanatic.co.uk]

Originally posted by tidytracks
ART had it nailed in the first two years with a strong lead driver (Rosberg and Hamilton) and a quick second driver (Premat). They lost that in the third year with the revolving door of Red Bull drivers to partner di Grassi. Now they have that back again with Grosjean and Filippi.

I think ART's only problem last year was di Grassi wasn't good enough.

[tidytracks]

To an extent, yeah I'd probably agree with the last two posts. Certainly if Glock hadn't been hit with so many problems, the championship would never have gone to the wire...

That said, in, every category and particularly GP2 with its restricted testing and minimal running time on race weekends... and even more so in the first year of a car... having a strong team of two quality drivers is hugely important. Without that its easy to get left behind.

[wingwalker]

Is this streaming available somewhere?

[noikeee]

Well, couldn't have asked for a better start by Álvaro, 2nd, on the front row!

Maldonado was very very quick and got pole. ART is the disaster of the day, Grosjean stopped with engine problems and ended 11th, Fillipi isn't even on the first half of the grid.

Buemi had a big shunt but he seemed fine.

[gio66]

Piquet Sports rules (almost) on friday.

Maldonado push like in Monaco and catch the pole.
Excellent Parente that confirms he it's not an outsider.
Another mistake for Senna who spun in the last stint.
Bad strategy for Racing Engineering in the last minutes with Pantano in the pits and Villa on track at 1'30" to the end (???).
I'm very disappointed for ART: Grosjean (engine out) and Filippi suffered for traffic and technical problems.

But tomorrow is another day.

The grid

1. Maldonado - Piquet Sports - 1'27.547
2. Parente - Super Nova - 1'27.705 (+0.158 )
3. Zuber - Piquet Sports - 1'28.155 (+0.608 )
4. Senna - iSport - 1'28.273 (+0.726)
5. Pantano - Racing Engineering - 1'28.290 (+0.743)
6. Valles - FMSI - 1'28.323 (+0.776)
7. Chandhok - iSport - 1'28.385 (+0.838 )
8. Petrov - Barwa Int. Campos Racing - 1'28.423 (+0.876)
9. Villa - Racing Engineering - 1'28.562 (+1.015)
10. Conway - Trident Racing - 1'28.622 (+1.075)
11. Grosjean - ART Grand Prix - 1'28.684 (+1.137)
12. Valsecchi - Durango - 1'28.713 (+1.166)
13. Kobayashi - DAMS - 1'28.799 (+1.252)
14. Filippi - ART Grand Prix - 1'28.868 (+1.321)
15. Hanley - Barwa Int. Campos Racing - 1'28.889 (+1.342)
16. Tung - Trident Racing - 1'28.937 (+1.390)
17. Valerio - Durango - 1'29.338 (+1.791)
18. Buurman - Trust Team Arden - 1'29.339 (+1.792)
19. Bakkerud - Super Nova - 1'29.394 (+1.847)
20. Buemi - Trust Team Arden - 1'29.478 (+1.931)
21. Pavlovic - BCN - 1'29.618 (+2.071)
22. D'Ambrosio - DAMS - 1'29.628 (+2.081)
23. Nocera - BCN - 1'29.708 (+2.161)
24. Rodriguez - FMSI - 1'29.762 (+2.215)
25. Nunes - DPR - 1'30.343 (+2.796)
26. Ricci - DPR - 1'30.443 (+2.896)

[Jackman]

Tough day at the office for ART: Grosjean lost his engine, Filippi lost all bar one gear.

[RF1 fan]

Originally posted by tidytracks


I agree to one extent, but in GP2 it's always a benefit to have two quick drivers to aid the development curve. ART had it nailed in the first two years with a strong lead driver (Rosberg and Hamilton) and a quick second driver (Premat). They lost that in the third year with the revolving door of Red Bull drivers to partner di Grassi. Now they have that back again with Grosjean and Filippi.

I don't think it's the fault of the driver ,it was the same in 2005 at Imola.A new car.

[postajegenye]

Maldonado, Parente
I hope Parente can keep up this form during the season.

[gio66]

Bruno spuns because of a gear problem, not a mistake.

[tidytracks]

Originally posted by RF1 fan


I don't think it's the fault of the driver ,it was the same in 2005 at Imola.A new car.

True, it was a new car but ART didn't win until the Sunday race in Magny Cours in 2005, after the mid-season test at which Rosberg , Premat and the team made a break through on set-up. From that point on they were the team to beat.

And yeah, gio is right about Bruno Senna. His paddle shift stuck going into T2 and when it finally released, the car snapped round and off he went.

[primer]

Halp!

Can anyone tell me the time at which races will be held. Either local Spain time or GMT.
I have tried looking on the GP2 site, they do not mention the exact live telecast timing.

Thanks!

[gio66]

Originally posted by primer
Halp!

Can anyone tell me the time at which races will be held. Either local Spain time or GMT.
I have tried looking on the GP2 site, they do not mention the exact live telecast timing.

Thanks!

http://www.circuitca...f1/horarios.asp

[Jackman]

4.00 European time today, 12.30 tomorrow.

[gio66]

Originally posted by Jackman
12.30 tomorrow.

10.30, as the timetable says

[Jackman]

Yeah sorry, someone told me it was 12.30, but I just checked the official timetable and it is definitely 10.30 to 11.20.

[Haddock]

Well, have to confess I hadn't expected a Maldonado/Parente front row!

I once saw Maldonado described as motorsport's Goran Ivanisevic - inspired one day and lost the next. It'll be interesting to see if this is a freak result or a sign that now he's away from Trident, he can really start achieving things.

Parente has always been very quick - but usually lacked the budget to get the best drives. In a fairer world, he'd be in F1 by now - certainly ahead of Kazuki Nakajima anyway.

Looking forward to this one...

[gio66]

Rumours from Barcelona.

http://www.italiarac...lenco.asp?cat=4

At the end of qualifying, chaos took off in the paddock, as Andy Soucek asked the local police to stop the run of his former car. After the separation with FMSI Soucek asked for the respect of the contract, including stopping the car taken on-track by Roldan Rodriguez.

Fisichella Motor Sport clarify that no one has notified the FMSI, nor even issued or granted, any attachment order of car of this team.

[Sergino]

where to watch the race on sopcast or p2p?

[Risil]

It's streaming on the ITV website, in case any UK dudes are unaware of this. I certainly was.

[peroa]

Any link?

[conkeso]

Get Zattoo, it broadcasts LaSexta, the Spanish Channel that is showing GP2 this year

http://www.zattoo.co...dows?download=1

I confirm the race is live and only 3-4 seconds delay vs normal TV with this proggy

[Lurb]

Slightly OT: as I feared, LaSexta commentators seem even worse than the buffoons at T5, and they are getting F1 next year. A few minutes into the show and their are already channeling that moron they have commenting football.

[Haddock]

Talking of grumbles about commentators, David Croft and Chris Goodwin are not a patch on Martin Haven and Gareth Rees.

Do we think Maldonado can make the points?

[Lurb]

That tarmac runoff at T1-T2 can cause a huge flamefest in F1 tomorrow, blowing T1 seems to be a big advantage now.

Mini-Fisi (Vallés) is a moving chicane :/

[dutra]

Links are not working at all for me here in Brazil...
How's the race so far?

[elia37]

Originally posted by Haddock
Talking of grumbles about commentators, David Croft and Chris Goodwin are not a patch on Martin Haven and Gareth Rees.

They come over as worthy but mind-numbingly dull

[Lurb]

Originally posted by dutra
Links are not working at all for me here in Brazil...
How's the race so far?

A bit boring for GP2, Parente leads from Senna, not much of a gap, but nor real fighting yet, then the rest comes in 1s and 2s. Huge ad break at the moment.

[dutra]

Thanks

[Lurb]

10 to go, tires starting to get squirrely. Parente, Senna and Zuber are within a few car lenghts of each other.

Grosjean alone in 5th is the fastest man on track. Vallés goes backwards and has collected a huge train behind him.

[Lurb]

7 to go, Senna all over Parente

6 to go The train starts going past Vallés, who obviously has some issues. Ads again

[tidytracks]

Turning into a good final few laps...

Valles dropping like a stone, Parente doing just enough to keep Senna at bay... for now

[Lurb]

Someone passed someone in the tiny window, the ads continue...

[Will]

Interestingly there is live coverage of the GP2 on ITV4, hope it continues that way

[Lurb]

2 to go, back from the ads, Vallés parks it
Senna will try before this ends
Or not, his car was acting up quite a bit....
Parente wins

[Haddock]

Great first race in GP2 from Alvaro Parente - every bit as quick as he looked when I saw him in British F3 at a wet and windy Knockhill some years back.

Promising start from Senna, be interesting to see if he can keep it up. Over the race distance, I think Grosjean might have been quicker than all of them though. My tip to win tomorrow.

[Lurb]

For all the flak Senna got for using the name, as he removes his helmet he really looks the part.

[tidytracks]

Was impressed with Maldonado too... awful start, but fought back superbly through the field.

My tip for tomorrow: A 2007 F3 Euroseries podium comprising Buemi, Kobayashi and Grosjean in some jumbled up order...

[lukywill]

parente:

hope he gets a f1 drive without the portuguese gov millions.

[gio66]

SUPERALVAROOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Fantastic job!

Good race for Senna despite a bad setup (too slow on the straight).

Tomorrow we'll see a real "war" at the first corner with Koba, Buemi and Petrov in the front of the grid.

[F1Fanatic.co.uk]

Nice clinical win from Parente. Grosjean did a decent job too though.

[noikeee]

Awesomeness, win on debut is a great way to start GP2 for Parente. He didn't seem the quickest on the field today, but held off Senna in a very composed way for the entire race. I wasn't expecting anything near such a good result.

The other star of the race was Grosjean, I counted at least 4 *great* passes - clean, aggressive and spectacular. He didn't seem quick yesterday in practice/qualifying, but today the Grosjean from the asian season was back.

Maldonado did well to fight back too, but you'd expect that given the pace he had. I think anxiety got up to him in the start, he already nearly spun the car in the chicane in the warmup lap. He has to be added to the list of championship favourites, but I don't think he is strong enough mentally.

[santori]

Nothing much to do but echo everyone else. I'm very pleased about Parente and Grosjean and Senna looked the part.

[Cenotaph]

WOW! Never expected Parente to do so well right from the start at GP2. Excellent news, let's hope he can pull more performances like that for the rest of the season.