6 replies to this topic

[mach4]

Will this series be covered by autosport.com? I believe they already had 3 days of free practice in Dubai and the first race is this weekend.

[bira]

We don't currently have plans to cover it, no.

[1986]

I'm really very interested in GP2 and was a little disappointed to find such little coverage (not just at Atlas/Autosport), but it gave me the opportunity to give writing a chance (and hopefully I'll be writing more as the first weekend progresses) - be forgiving its my first attempt.



GP2 Asia Series Revs Up For Dubai

The anticipation and excitement have slowly been building over the past week, as the GP2 Asia Series hosted its first two test sessions at the Dubai Autodrome, in the lead-up to this week’s inaugural grand prix.

With the exception of Racing Engineering, the line-up includes the other twelve competing teams from last year’s GP2 Series, with the Meritus team stepping in to make up the grid.

Although the two test sessions have presented a mixed bag of results for most teams, there has been one standout driver and team combination. Romain Grossjean and ART Grand Prix have topped the timesheets at both test sessions.

With this weekend’s two races looking to be contested in similar conditions this is an encouraging start for the team, in sync with their goals for the championship.

Frédéric Vasseur, joint Team Principal with Nicolas Todt, stated that: “ART Grand Prix takes the new GP2 Series Asia challenge very seriously and will combine the best elements in the context given in order to be a regular visitor to the podium.”

Bruno Senna and Karun Chandok are the nominated drivers for iSport International, champions of last year’s GP2 Series. With a respectful end to testing (P3 and P5 respectively) they are no doubt seen as very strong contenders alongside Grossjean, in what looks to be a very tightly contested weekend.

Today’s clear schedule provides a welcome respite for the teams, ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying and the first race of the weekend, with race two wrapping up proceedings on Saturday.

[1986]

Any comments on the above at all? I would like to eventually write for somebody, so any professional, or casual, advice would be appreciated. How could I get this up to Autosport standards for example?

I include below my report from Free Practice (sorry my formatting on the timesheet seems to have gone kaput on the forum and I don't have time to fix it right now), and have a report for Qualifying if anyone would be interested.

Soucek Tops Free Practice

Andy Soucek set the pace in this morning’s free practice session, at the opening round of the GP2 Asia Series in Dubai. Racing for DPR he was able to establish a gap of just over four tenths to Bruno Senna, in second for iSport International, with Adrian Valles coming in third.

The Spaniard talking before the season believed that he and DPR would be able to carry through good momentum from last year’s GP2 Series. However, it is not expected that this form will carry through to qualifying or the race.

Free practice did not run its full course and was red-flagged twenty minutes into the half-hour session as Luca Filippi made a driving error, crashing his car into the wall.

The pace this morning was nearly half a second slower than that achieved in the tests at the track earlier this week, with many cars having set a faster time. Clearly, qualifying will be a much more hotly contested session.

[b]

Pos Driver					   Team					   Time		Laps[/b]

1.   Andy Soucek			 DPR						 1:21.870  11

2.   Bruno Senna			  iSport International 1:22.280  10

3.   Adrian Valles			 FMS International	1:22.514  12

4.   Romain Grosjean	   ART Grand Prix		1:22.864  8

5.   Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:22.996 11

6.   Marco Bonanomi Piquet Sports 1:23.107 9

7.   Vitaly Petrov Barwa International Campos Team 1:23.165 11

8.   Karun Chandhok iSport International 1:23.185 8

9.   Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova Racing 1:23.267 12

10.  Milos Pavlovic BCN Competicion 1:23.301 12

11.  Sébastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:23.431 12

12.  Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:23.480 11

13.  Luca Filippi Qi-Meritus Mahara 1:23.556 9

14.  Jérôme d’Ambrosio Dams 1:23.805 10

15.  Harald Schleghelmilch Trident Racing 1:23.816 10

16.  Hiroki Yoshimoto Qi-Meritus Mahara 1:23.894 10

17.  Diego Nunes Barwa International Campos Team 1:23.894 12

18.  Stephen Jelley ART Grand Prix 1:23.988 12

19.  Adam Khan Trust Team Arden 1:24.288 12

20.  Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:24.726 11

21.  Michael Herck FMS International 1:24.930 10

22.  Arman Ebrahim DPR 1:24.980 10

23.  Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 1:25.551 11

24.  Alberto Valerio Durango 1:26.123 11

25.  Jason Tahinci BCN Competicion 1:26.206 11

26.  Marcello Puglisi Piquet Sports 1:35.585 3

[Tomecek]

Originally posted by bira
We don't currently have plans to cover it, no.

Thanks for covering it, eventually

[Barry Scott]

Yeah, I was also pleased to see it make it onto the site, eventually

[mach4]

The latest "Paddock Life" article was great. I hope you continue to not cover this series.;)