GP2 Valencia (street) rounds 11 & 12 2012

[skells22]

time for the GP2 to get back in action after a few weeks break.
I just hope everybody get past turn 2 this time around (the hot spot for 1st lap issues)

[Mekola]

Daniel De Jong substitutes Tom Dillmann at Rapax, for this round at the moment. Dillmann is arranging with the team to continue in further rounds.

[ivanalesi]

It seems like lately Luxury Racing don't like to pay bills. It's a shame to see Tom go, he has been so far very good in his rookie year.

[HaydenFan]

Originally Posted by Mekola

Daniel De Jong substitutes Tom Dillmann at Rapax, for this round at the moment. Dillmann is arranging with the team to continue in further rounds.

I read de Jong is in the car for next 4 rounds (excluding Hockenheim b/c of conflict with Auto GP).

http://www.autosport.nl/news/25235/g...ut_in_valencia

[bella]

big shame for dillman, he's got the track experience you'd want to see of someone in gp2 and he was doing well. but de jong... talk about overextending yourself. it's a great opportunity but he's not exactly swimming in autogp and had a challenging fr3.5 season in 2011 too.

good luck to him.

[Mekola]

Another opportunity for Dillmann: Teixeira is indisposed for Valencia, then Tom will retain his seat only for this round.
Hope the Frenchman could be at Hockenheim when De Jong is unable to be due to his Auto GP commitments.

[bella]

ah that's good news for dillman at least, thanks for the further info

bit more info from autosport on the musical chairs: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100514

[Kassai]

Really strange for Dillmann to have so much budget trouble when you see his results. Let's hope he can do somehing this weekend.

It is my first season following GP2, really enjoy it so far. Good luck to all for Valencia.

[p-matt]

Turns out De Jong is replacing Teixeira this weekend instead. He is ill apparently. Dillman gets a reprieve.

[Juntos]

Teixeira leaves and his sponsor stays. Some surprises hit you over the head like a squash racket.

[Nikki Katz]

Hmm will Rapax field de Jong and Texiera for the rest of the season though? Didn't fancy scoring any more points?

[p-matt]

A cracking race today. Such a shame for Calado though.

[BootsOntheSide]

Race 1 just demonstrates what's wrong with the current overuse of the safety car. Maybe the first incident needed the track neutralizing completely, but waved yellows would have been more than enough to control the other incidents. Besides, if Dillmann had been black-flagged as soon as the rear wing started to fail (the Sky F1 commentator noticed it several laps before), none of this would have unfolded - Calado probably taking a deserved with and no car upside down. It was only the misdeployment of the third safety car which stopped Calado finishing stone last.

[Nikki Katz]

Well that was fun to watch, probably much more so than F1 will be tomorrow, but it's not really showing the talent of the field in a good light!

[Mystery]

Valsecchi penalised for overtaking the safety car. 20 sec penalty makes him 18th. Calado starts on pole! :-)

[Kassai]

What a crazy race. Dillmann incident excepted all the other collisions should have been avoided, not really showing the best of behavior by the driver there.
And so many penalty after the race (Valsecchi, Addax, Palmer and Gonzalez).
Really crazy race

[chunterer]

So Calado get's a very handy reprieve there then!
Fingers crossed for him this morning.
Not good to see such a messy race and over enthusiastic use of the SC but isn't it always likely on street circuits to remove any possible risk of debris and such?

[p-matt]

Excellent sprint race this morning. Again felt sorry for Calado. But Razia came from nowhere! This is probably the weekend where he's been furthest off the pace, but has eaten into Valsecchi's championship lead.

[ivanalesi]

This was great racing, unexpected for Valencia. I wonder what happened with Calado's pace in the sprint race? He was from another planet on Saturday and suddenly he was having a train of cars behind him on Sunday!?
I'm happy to see some of the youngsters getting adapted so fast and looking forward to the season, especially looking at Calado and Nasr(super unlucky as well). Haryanto also finally showed some flashes, so he must be a good bet for the wet weekends

[Go_For_Pole]

Razia actually had pretty good pace in the end, he managed his tyres beautifully

[chunterer]

So after Valescchi's lighting start to the season, maybe it's still very much up for grabs this season?

Unfortunately I haven't been able to see most of the rounds so far this year, but am I right in thinking that he hasn't had the legs on everyone for the last 3-4 races?

Who do we think is starting to come through to be reckoned with?

Razia is clearly doing a great job, and Calado obviously has the pace of the newcomers.

But what about the ART boys, they seem pretty average which is a great surprise..

[p-matt]

DAMS definitely don't have the advantage of saving the tyres they did at the start of the year. But Valsecchi has been quite unlucky in the last few races, particularly in qualifying. If he gets pole in Silverstone, we'll see what he can do.

I think Valsecchi has more inherent pace than Razia, and both are far enough ahead of Calado, VDG, Gutierrez and Chilton in the champiaonship that I think Davide will take it.

I'm looking forward to Chilton's luck finally running out. I don't know how he's kept in the hunt.

[bella]

out of this year's field who would you like to see in f1? i'm really not sure if any have the really exciting pace that makes you want to see what they could do with a f1 car. calado is about the only one, but how much longer does he have the rsf support?

(yes i realise that's going off topic but it's my party and i'll waffle if i want to )

[ivanalesi]

I watch GP2 mainly for Calado, the others aren't exactly impressing. I have the feeling that Nasr will soon start showing the way to Valsecchi.
But it will be fair to give them at least one year to get some experience because now they race against so many 2-3-4-5th year drivers. Do we expect this year's GP2 champion to land F1 seat?

[bella]

i hope not. i mean, has anyone really deserved it? can we actually tell at all any more now there's tyres to manage? what's the point, showcasing driver ability or teaching them stuff for f1? you can't do both, surely?