GP2 Round 3 Monaco

[Adri_tifosi]

Free Practice 1

1. Maldonado Trident Racing 1:23.320 15
2. Glock iSport International 1:23.446 + 0.126 16
3. Pantano Campos Grand Prix 1:23.472 + 0.152 19
4. Di Grassi ART Grand Prix 1:23.677 + 0.357 19
5. Soucek DPR 1:23.820 + 0.500 14
6. Buemi ART Grand Prix 1:24.288 + 0.968 20
7. Zuber iSport International 1:24.455 + 1.135 19
8. Pizzonia FMS International 1:24.588 + 1.268 18
9. Petrov Campos Grand Prix 1:24.769 + 1.449 19
10. Hirate Trident Racing 1:24.986 + 1.666 19
11. Senna Arden International 1:25.004 + 1.684 19
12. Lapierre DAMS 1:25.035 + 1.715 19
13. Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports 1:25.146 + 1.826 18
14. Filippi Super Nova International 1:25.199 + 1.879 19
15. Garcia Durango 1:25.418 + 2.098 17
16. Chandhok Durango 1:25.420 + 2.100 17
17. Villa Racing Engineering 1:25.804 + 2.484 16
18. Bakkerud DPR 1:25.846 + 2.526 19
19. Yamamoto BCN Competicion 1:26.052 + 2.732 19
20. Tung BCN Competicion 1:26.369 + 3.049 19
21. Nakajima DAMS 1:26.508 + 3.188 19
22. Zaugg Arden International 1:26.554 + 3.234 17
23. Jimenez Racing Engineering 1:26.627 + 3.307 18
24. Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 1:27.055 + 3.735 19
25. Conway Super Nova International 1:27.142 + 3.822 17
26. Tahinci FMS International 1:27.291 + 3.971 17

[Sephirot1]

Wow Maldonado, wow Andy, wow Buemi!

It's going to be a funny race!

And there goes Conway, master of street races!

[Adri_tifosi]

Good start for Campos Guys also

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by Adri_tifosi

1. Maldonado Trident Racing 1:23.320 15

Bet that's quite a confidence boost considering his nightmare at Monaco a couple of years back.

[Jackman]

Maldonado and Soucek were completely ragged all through the session today, whereas most of the others realised there was more to be lost than gained in this session. Soucek obviously found out what he could lose when he binned his car at the top of the hill.

The times will be a lot different tomorrow. There was quite a variety of fuel loads between teams today. Buemi was pretty impressive on his first time in the car, though.

[Sev]

Originally Posted by Jackman

Maldonado and Soucek were completely ragged all through the session today, whereas most of the others realised there was more to be lost than gained in this session. Soucek obviously found out what he could lose when he binned his car at the top of the hill.

The times will be a lot different tomorrow. There was quite a variety of fuel loads between teams today. Buemi was pretty impressive on his first time in the car, though.

Which implies that Glock was breezing through once more

So. Who's going to get that highly-contested second place then? :P

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by Sev

So. Who's going to get that highly-contested second place then? :P

Jason Tahinci.

[climb]

Impressive lap time from Maldonado, virtually the same time of F1 Spyker's Albers in session #1

[Adri_tifosi]

Free Practice 2

1. di Grassi ART Grand Prix 1:21.540 15
2. Buemi ART Grand Prix 1:21.628 + 0.088 18
3. Glock iSport International 1:21.740 + 0.200 12
4. Maldonado Trident Racing 1:21.914 + 0.374 17
5. Filippi Super Nova International 1:21.971 + 0.431 17
6. Zuber iSport International 1:22.017 + 0.477 16
7. Pizzonia FMS International 1:22.302 + 0.762 17
8. Lapierre DAMS 1:22.708 + 1.168 19
9. Villa Racing Engineering 1:22.751 + 1.211 15
10. Soucek DPR 1:22.762 + 1.222 17
11. Conway Super Nova International 1:22.801 + 1.261 18
12. Petrov Campos Grand Prix 1:22.966 + 1.426 17
13. Zaugg Arden International 1:22.998 + 1.458 17
14. Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 1:23.235 + 1.695 20
15. Bakkerud DPR 1:23.251 + 1.711 17
16. Chandhok Durango 1:23.284 + 1.744 16
17. Senna Arden International 1:23.311 + 1.771 17
18. Pantano Campos Grand Prix 1:24.055 + 2.515 16
19. Yamamoto BCN Competicion 1:24.137 + 2.597 17
20. Hirate Trident Racing 1:24.160 + 2.620 16
21. Nakajima DAMS 1:24.417 + 2.877 19
22. Garcia Durango 1:24.839 + 3.299 15
23. Jimenez Racing Engineering 1:25.724 + 4.184 9
24. Tahinci FMS International 1:26.516 + 4.976 16
25. Tung BCN Competicion 1:38.310 +16.770 3
26. Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports no time 2

[gomick]

mike conway - does he need to be fast & winning now or does he get 2 years to win this championship ....

pizzonia - pfft, must have $$$ behind him.... hope timo glock wins because he reckons he has "unfinished business in f1" & he made the ballsy decision to go back to europe after 1 year in the states

[Russfeld]

Low fuel and ragged seems to be working for Maldonado who is now on pole. I'm sure Tahinci is luring the field into a false sense of security.

[SALEEN S7R]

Interesting lap times, last years Pole was a low 1:20. I wonder what they can get this year? The GP2 pole time being quicker than one or both of the Spykers is looking a real possibilty at the moment.

[Jackman]

Pole was 1:20.820 - Maldonado ahead of Pantano, Zuber, Buemi, di Grassi, Petrov, Filippi and Glock.

[strider]

Senna and Conway round out the top ten. Very impressive performance from Buemi, but he was good in Macau last year, so he must like street circuits.

[Adri_tifosi]

Grid

1. Pastor Maldonado - Trident - 1'20"820
2. Giorgio Pantano - Campos - 1'21"158
3. Andreas Zuber - iSport - 1'21"273
4. Sebastien Buemi - ART - 1'21"387
5. Lucas Di Grassi - ART - 1'21"541
6. Vitaly Petrov - Campos - 1'21"579
7. Luca Filippi - Super Nova - 1'21"659
8. Timo Glock - iSport - 1'21"684
9. Bruno Senna - Arden - 1'21"827
10. Mike Conway - Super Nova - 1'21"971
11. Adrian Zaugg - Arden - 1'21"986
12. Antonio Pizzonia - FMSI - 1'22"070
13. Nicolas Lapierre - Dams - 1'22"089
14. Javier Villa - Racing Engineering - 1'22"290
15. Karun Chandhok - Durango - 1'22"348
16. Roldan Rodriguez - Minardi/Piquet - 1'22"370
17. Andy Soucek - DPR - 1'22"392
18. Kazuki Nakajima - Dams - 1'22"503
19. Christian Bakkerud - DPR - 1'22"729
20. Borja Garcia - Durango - 1'22"781
21. Sergio Jimenez - Racing Engineering - 1'22"866
22. Ho Pin Tung - BCN - 1'23"598
23. Sakon Yamamoto - BCN - 1'23"645
24. Jason Tahinci - FMSI - 1'23"996
25. Kohei Hirate - Trident - 1'24"350
26. Alexandre Negrao - Minardi/Piquet - No Time

[Sev]

One interesting aspect of the past two races is how Aleshin and Beumi have done. Both have done exceptional jobs, making me wonder if ART haven't actually got any worse than last year, but are merely being driven by lemons. Ammermuller last year couldn't do much better than Lappiere, as opposed to Kovalainen who destroyed him.

On the upside, I'm guessing Beumi just secured himself a good seat in GP2 next year.

[hotwheels]

Originally Posted by Sev

One interesting aspect of the past two races is how Aleshin and Beumi have done. Both have done exceptional jobs, making me wonder if ART haven't actually got any worse than last year, but are merely being driven by lemons. Ammermuller last year couldn't do much better than Lappiere, as opposed to Kovalainen who destroyed him.

On the upside, I'm guessing Beumi just secured himself a good seat in GP2 next year.

I agree with you about ammermüller, but still would put some coins on Di Grassi. He can be a racewinner and - maybe - a title contender.

[chunterer]

Who knows??

My bit of 'pressure' on Pastor in the predictions thread seemed to work then??

Mind you he has always been good round there. Just wonder if he'll hold it together in race though.

There's little doubt he's a driver who when he qualifies up the front either clears off into distance or crashes!

Petrov has to be star of qualy through surely? Hitherto thought of as fairly average at best, where's he found his pace from suddenly?

[Jackman]

Maldonado was pretty impressive today: completely on the ragged edge, but that's what he does. I'm a bit worried about him at the start tomorrow as he's known for being a bit nuts, and he'll have Pantano next to him who isn't exactly known for letting people by, so we might have a bit of a moment into St Devote. They've all been told to calm down by Charlie Whiting, although we'll see if they pay any more attention to him here than they did in Bahrain and Barcelona.

Oh, and it's almost certain to rain in the race tomorrow. Woot.

Petrov was a bit nuts today: stuffed up a lot of other people's laps, was bouncing all over the place, and then put it into the wall at St Devote just after stringing together a hot lap somehow, thereby stuffing up more people's laps as he limped back with his rear wing hanging on by a thread. Good grid position, but there are ways and means...

[Go_For_Pole]

Originally Posted by Jackman

Petrov was a bit nuts today: stuffed up a lot of other people's laps, was bouncing all over the place, and then put it into the wall at St Devote just after stringing together a hot lap somehow, thereby stuffing up more people's laps as he limped back with his rear wing hanging on by a thread. Good grid position, but there are ways and means...

Still, I would think very few people were expecting Petrov to be even fast.

GP2 on the streets in the rain with Maldonado and Nakajima on the grid, now that's a scary prospect

[Charlies]

It's going to rain? Let the insanity commence.

I expected the grid to look somewhat different to practice, but credit to Maldonado he clearly goes well at Monaco. Petrov is a surprise, and Buemi on his first visit to the track and his first time in the car in fourth. Red Bull are backing a winner there. Disappointing to see Glock and Senna at the back of the top ten. Not the place to be going into St Devote...

Should be an entertaining race regardless.

[Jackman]

It's tipping down rain at the moment - expect mayhem this afternoon.

[chunterer]

Nightmare.....

[Russfeld]

Unless it rains again, I reckon F1 will produce a dry line by the end of qualifying and should GP2 should be able to start on slicks.

Which would be utter rubbish because there'd physically be no place to overtake then if the entire area off the racing groove is wet.

[chunterer]

Is there still a lot of white lines painted on the surface as well?!!!