GP2 Final Rounds - Monza, the thread!

[chunterer]

In the red corner it's 'Lightning' Lewis Hamilton

In the blue corner it's Nelsinho 'poleman' Piquet

The GP2 title bout concluded over 2 rounds of Monza, Italy....

Seconds (2 days actually) out.....

Ok guys what's the SP then?

[newoutsider]

All the pressure now sits with Nelsinho - all Lewis has to do is keep him in sight and the title is his.

On the other hand, Nelsinho is confirmed in F1 next year, so may be quite laid back, while Lewis sin't (as far as we know) and so may feel the need to impress - again.

[strider]

The title is Lewis's to win or lose, realistically.

There are random factors, like a bad pitstop or a drive through penalty, that could be significant, but I hope not.

Perhaps more interestingly, there is talk of some rain over the weekend, more likely tomorrow and on Saturday than on Sunday. On a partially re-surfaced track, that could cause an unexpected twist.

Nelsinho has no option other than to go for every available point. Lewis could win it by being relatively conserative, but will he settle for that?

[Alienman_69]

Here we go again for the last race.
The usual suspects on top of practice times!

1 - N. Piquet..............01'30"801
2 - L. Hamilton...........01'30"966
3 - A. Premat.............01'31"185
4 - F. Porteiro.............01'31"321
5 - M. Ammermuller......01'31"459
6 - G. Pantano............01'31"495
7 - A. Carroll...............01'31"659
8 - F. Perera...............01'31"690
9 - E. Viso..................01'31"745
10 - G. Bruni...............01'31"784
11 - A. Valles..............01'31"800
12 - A. Negrão.............01'31"915
13 - T. Glock...............01'31"981
14 - A. Zuber...............01'32"006
15 - N. Lapierre............01'32"136
16 - S. Hernandez.........01'32"169
17 - H. Yoshimoto.........01'32"304
18 - F. Monfardini.........01'32"337
19 - C. Piccione............01'32"401
20 - L. Di Grassi............01'32"502
21 - L. Filippi................01'32"571
22 - J. Villa..................01'32"816
23 - F. Fauzy...............01'32"821
24 - V. Petrov..............01'32"848
25 - J. Lopez................01'32"998
26 - J. Tahinci..............01'33"057

[Alienman_69]

Piquet on pole again and 8 points behind Hamilton.

1. Nelson Piquet Jr Piquet 1m 30.161s
2. Giorgio Pantano FMS 1m 30.390s
3. Lewis Hamilton ART 1m 30.488s
4. Adam Carroll Racing Engineering 1m 30.789s
5. Frank Perera DAMS 1m 30.951s
6. Alexandre Premat ART 1m 31.031s
7. Luca Filippi BCN 1m 31.071s
8. Ernesto Viso iSport 1m 31.162s
9. Michael Ammermuller Arden 1m 31.212s
10. Adrian Valles Campos 1m 31.288s
11. Timo Glock iSport 1m 31.302s
12. Gianmaria Bruni Trident 1m 31.357s
13. Felix Porteiro Campos 1m 31.358s
14. Andreas Zuber Trident 1m 31.453s
15. Jose Maria Lopez Super Nova 1m 31.479s
16. Clivio Piccione DPR 1m 31.510s
17. Alexandre Negrao Piquet 1m 31.664s
18. Sergio Hernandez Durango 1m 31.685s
19. Nicolas Lapierre Arden 1m 31.821s
20. Ferdinando Monfardini DAMS 1m 31.882s
21. Hiroki Yoshimoto BCN 1m 31.888s
22. Lucas di Grassi Durango 1m 31.934s
23. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1m 32.195s
24. Vitaly Petrov DPR 1m 32.351s
25. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova 1m 32.584s
26. Jason Tahinci FMS 1m 33.337s

[chunterer]

Well it's shaping up nicely isn't it?!

Pantano's stuck his oar in there and could cause a few problems as he's bound to go mad for the win at home!

Perera's done pretty well and I didn't predict that!

Few people down the order that will be scratching their heads a bit: Viso, Glock, Lopez, Bruni, Zuber, Lapierre and how can Di Grassi go from being where he should be in Turkey to nowhere at the next meeting. It'll be interesting to see how he goes in the race!

Valles - solid job. I think he could be a dark horse for the title next year given a good car ... That reminds me we must ask Gareth's opinion on who he rates (if he wants to stick his neck on the line!)

But Filippi has to be perfomance of the session!!

What was it Mansell used to say about driving in front of your home crowd?......

[Martin Haven]

To my mind, the presence of Pantano and a couple of others at the sharp end might be a real spoiler... not in the sense of getting between out two heroes... more in the sense of ridiculously ill-judged manoeuvres that punt them off into the gravel.

True, to win a title you have to beat EVERYONE - rough with the smooth and all that - but... I think Nelsinho and Lewis will worry more about the other cars then each other. They know that they can trust each other in close combat. As for the others...

The randomising effect - especially in the first chicane and into Ascari - is worryingly high in Monza...

[racingdad]

Originally Posted by newoutsider

All the pressure now sits with Nelsinho - all Lewis has to do is keep him in sight and the title is his.

On the other hand, Nelsinho is confirmed in F1 next year, so may be quite laid back, while Lewis sin't (as far as we know) and so may feel the need to impress - again.

The second part of this statement is more likely. Piquet has drive with Renault next year, win or loose, so no pressure other than his desire to win.

Hamilton desparately wants Uncle Ron to fix it for him, so probably feels he needs to win the Championship (or face a second year to get the job done).

[Martin Haven]

Penalties after Qual have altered the grid... courtesy of Autosport.com...

Hamilton loses best laps, keeps 3rd

By Andrew van de Burgt Saturday, September 9th 2006, 09:12 GMT

Lewis Hamilton is one of five drivers to have his two fastest laps disqualified from yesterday's GP2 qualifying session, but the championship leader will still line up third for this afternoon's race.

Adrian Valles's late-session spin caused yellow flags to be waved at the final Parabolica corner, and this caught out a number of drivers on their hot laps, including the Briton.

However, Hamilton's next best time of 1:30.712 is still good enough to keep him within sight of title rival Nelson Piquet Jr.

Harder hit was DAMS racer Franck Perera, who drops from fifth to ninth, and Trident's Andreas Zuber, who slips to 18th from 14th.

Also penalised were Nicolas Lapierre, who remains 19th, and the second DAMS entry of Ferdinando Monfardini, who drops to 23rd from 20th.

[racingdad]

Glad to see Uncle Ron is doing absolutely nothing to relieve any pressure from Lewis:

"I along with Norbert Haug and Martin Whitmarsh have avoided all dialogue about what role he will play in our future until after this weekend because he has got a job to do and that is to win the GP2 championship and that is his job now and when that is finished one way or the other then we will look to his future and what part McLaren Mercedes will play in it. But certainly there is no decision taken."

So there it is then - win or else....

[Adam43]

Does it actually say that?
I thought it was more, get on with the GP2 job. We haven't said what he will do after because it is irrelevant to what happens next. I doubt the result will make a huge difference.

[racingdad]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

Does it actually say that?
I thought it was more, get on with the GP2 job. We haven't said what he will do after because it is irrelevant to what happens next. I doubt the result will make a huge difference.

win the GP2 championship and that is his job now and when that is finished one way or the other then we will look to his future

seems failry clear to me

[Adam43]

Seems clear that this means "win or else"? It isn't clear that it says this, or even clearly infers it.

It means that when the GP2 season is over they will look at what he will do next.

[racingdad]

Well,

I may be old fashioned (I'm certainly old), but if someone said to me "your job right now is to win and then we'll see what happens next" (which is exactly what it says), I would take that as a very clear message that my future is directly related to winning, not coming second.

[Suze]

What time is the race...?

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by racingdad

Well,

I may be old fashioned (I'm certainly old), but if someone said to me "your job right now is to win and then we'll see what happens next" (which is exactly what it says), I would take that as a very clear message that my future is directly related to winning, not coming second.

To get to your conclusion you have to read something into what is said and make an assumption. The emphasis is on the two parts being separate for me, not connected. He says that they have avoided talking about it so as not to distract.

Originally Posted by Ron

I along with Norbert [Haug] and Martin [Whitmarsh] have avoided all dialogue about what role he will play in our future until after this weekend because he has got a job to do and that is to win the GP2 championship.

"That is his job now and when that is finished one way or the other then we will look to his future and what part McLaren Mercedes will play in it.

[Daisy]

Is there any way (apart from the circuit itself of course) where I can follow the race. It's not on TV and Livetiming at Eurosport doesn't work.

[karimbo]

Is there anyone who could "post the race" live ??

[Suze]

Can't find anything here

[strider]

Pantano won from Piquet and Lewis. Gap now 6 points with 7 on offer tomorrow.

See here.

[Daisy]

Nothing is impossible, but it's looks good for Hamilton. Have a clean start, don't do anything stupid and bring the car home.

Sure that's correct, because Eurosport is showing Perera in 6th place ?

[strider]

It's italiaracing.net, so anything is possible! Maybe Piquet won after all. Only 14 finishers suggests a hectic race. The first three did well to keep out of trouble.

[Frank_White]

Pantano got fastest lap which means that Piquet must win the sprint race and take fastest lap without Hamilton scoring a single point to win the championship!!
Hamilton is basically champion!

[Daisy]

Originally Posted by strider

It's italiaracing.net, so anything is possible! Maybe Piquet won after all. Only 14 finishers suggests a hectic race. The first three did well to keep out of trouble.

Lol maybe you're right

Looking forward to tomorrows race, I hope I don't forget to watch (like Turkey 2 weeks ago )

[flexible-flyer]

bloody typical luck for adam carroll. all set for at least a podium and then off comes his wheel after his pitstop....

if only adam had had a decent team this year.......