GP2 Asia - Bahrain weekend thread

Well the weekend is almost upon us.

Can anyone stop Grosjean? Valles, Filippi, Senna, Fauzy and Petrov are the guys most likely too.....

Big news of the weekend so far is that according to what i've read on their schedules; Eurosport is showing Saturday's race but not Sunday's?!! Strange.....

According to the schedule on Eurosport's site, they are showing Sunday's race at 9am.

Not only both GP2 races, but both Speedcar and Porsche Supercup races. A motorsport overload this weekend with F1, IRL, WTCC, Nascar, LMS, ALMS, BSB, and WSBK as well.

Grosjean fastest in practice, half a second faster than the rest of the field.

What happend to pastor?

Maldonado?

He isn't in Asia series. Only signed up for main series with Piquet Sports or whatever their called now.

Once again Grosjean is miles clear so far, let's see if he can replicate that pace in qualy.

Pastor??? But if he don't race in GP2 Asia. He will start at GP2 Series season at the end of this month.

the average level (driving standards) of GP2 Asia is disappointing me.

There are no dominators in GP2 at the moment, but the series still brings spectacle. It could be good for formula racing that the series can continue with its peculiar attraction. Maybe Grosjean could give us a surprise this year.

Did something happen to Jelley, or is the keyword "slow"?

I think Jelley is just plain slow.

But damn, qualifying times are in here (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/66351), and damn Grosjean is good at qualifying.

Once he gets used to the GP2 car, and on tracks he knows...I really find it hard to bet against him winning the main GP2 series. His average qualifying time must be getting on for .5 of a second faster than his next closest rival.

Calm down Sev, for main series you've Maldonado, Zuber, Pantano and Filippi as main rivals, they do not do Asian rounds. Filippi will be strong oposition in ART GP2, much stronger than Jelley, who's main activities are BTCC rounds this days. Ofc he is strong, but I doubt he'll be that much stronger in the main series.

Looks like I-Sport could be in for good weekend, 2nd and 3rd on grid but strange to see Filippi and both Campos cars so far back?

Where do you guys get the coverage because there's nothing over here, Speed's not even talking about it? Any video feeds around or...? :p

And Grosjean won again! Buemi second and Kobayashi third on the first race.

Dominant race by Grosjean once he got out front. I thought it was pretty entertaining throughout the field. Buemi and Senna drove well, especially with Senna recovering from the delay in the pits. I can't understand why people still stay out during a safety car; it's never going to be successful unless you have an incredibly fast car and can pull out a 20-30 second gap.

Chandok on pole tomorrow, despite another amateur mistake coming out of the pits. He seems quick enough to hold the lead at first, but for me Grosjean will come through, with Valles, Senna and Buemi in pursuit. With Grosjean only needing a top three finish to clinch the title, it's likely we'll have the first GP2 Asia Champion crowned tomorrow morning.

i preview one asian victory for tomorrow. grosjean will be champion too.

You got an asian victory but I guess not the one expected!!!
Grosjean keeps it alive!!

Don't think so, the GP2 Asia series has been won by Grosjean with one event remaining.

Dominance.

Congratulations to Grosjean for winning the title, but let's hope that he has a little more competition in the main series. He'll start as favourite, and unfortunately none of his rivals, while sometimes having the speed to challenge him, seem to have the consistency over a season. On the form of GP2 Asia I don't see a Kovalainen or Piquet to keep him honest.

Some good racing this weekend, with plenty of overtaking. While Bahrain may have all the character of a car park, it produces some excellent racing.

Very entertaining race. Never really saw Grosjean after he got in front, pretty terrible start though. Suprising to see Valles so slow, I expected him to at least podium.

Apologies for the technical problems during the broadcast - hope it didn't spoil your enjoyment of the (estimated) 742 over-taking manoeuvres!!:rofl:

Too much to keep up with, with only one TV in the lounge, I suspect...

Thanks for the thoughts Martin, appreciate that. When I checked schedules earlier in week, there was no listing of race 2 being shown. Shame I missed what you're referring to!

Hats off to Grosjean then. Really looks a cut above the others. Could have 2 Frenchmen in F1 next year then?!!!

The live feed suddenly switched to a World Superbike logo for about thirty seconds. I presume we missed a few dozen manoeuvres Martin?

Given his previous performance in Dubai Romain should have a successful weekend there, but I suppose Luca Filippi might pose more of a challenge to Grosjean than Jelley come Barcelona and GP2 proper.

Yes, I agree Filippi holds our main hope.

But I'm really dissapointed in Senna/Chandhok/Buemi. I had them marked as title challengers, but in the same teams as they are in for the main GP2 event, they were no where near Grosjean.

Basically, we're left with Filippi, the Piquet drivers (Zuber and Maldonado), or the RE drivers (Villa). And my one concern is that all of those drivers are experienced in GP2, in teams of similar capability to what they are in next year. In those top class teams, none of them managed to challenge for a title. Villa is about the only one who can really claim inexperience either.

I think GP2 may be about to witness its first uncontested season.

dont think we should get ahead of ourselves here....the European series is a fresh start and anything can happen again.....the isport boys have had some terrible luck go their way..have been on the ball in terms of pace but unlucky with the races themselves...Nunes climbing the curb to t-bone chandhok (for which i think he was penalised) and Senna not even starting....and we should see more competition with Pantano, Villa etc....im really looking forward to it

But I'm really dissapointed in Senna/Chandhok/Buemi. I had them marked as title challengers, but in the same teams as they are in for the main GP2 event, they were no where near Grosjean.

I think Buemi has been pretty impressive - far more than he was with ART last year. He actually scored more points than anyone this weekend too I think. Its the best the Arden car has looked for some time.

Senna and Chandhok are there or thereabouts, but Senna has especially been unlucky in this championship, while Chandhok has combined bad luck with a few errors too. iSport say they have Chandhok racing in Asia to iron out a few kinks, which I suppose he is trying to do.

iSport need to have a very long and quiet talk with their drivers, they need to pull it out of the bag big time. Neither of them are as naturally quick as Grosjean, so they'll need to figure something out.

You'd love to think Pantano would be the dark horse, but the reason he's Giorgio is the reason he won't be.

Zuber and Maldonado will be up there, but not enough. Although Zuber could be as quick as last year and if he starts and finishes races successfully...

That really leaves us with Filippi, who I'm just not terribly convinced by, and certainly not as Grosjean's teammate. He'll run him close, but it's hard to see Grosjean not doing it, especially since he'll already know most of the tracks.

At this point he's already looking better than Glock/di Grassi but not quite Hamilton/Rosberg/Piquet level, but getting there.