GP2 Series Race 1 | Spa Francorchamps 2008

Spa, the weekend of the stewards, the different weather conditions and Bruno Senna who stills has hopes to win the championship.

Like always I gonna mix this report with some personal points of view.

Friday 5 September 2008:

After some delay during the trip I arrived at 2pm in the Welcome center to pick up my pass.
Walking through the crowd with alot of attention on my camera’s I made it to the GP2 paddock.

There was not much time to take a deep breath because the GP2 drivers had to do their qualifine at 4pm.
Quickly I was searching just for one car in the pitlane, the car with nr.2 from Bruno Senna.

Bruno was allready in the car and after taking some photographs his sister Bianca showed up in the pits. I was very pleased she recognized me and she started to smile and weaving her hand at me. After saying hello to each other it was time for the drivers to perform on their best.

Bruno Senna

During this qualifine session I took the gamble and start to walk around the track. Inside Les Combes I made my action shots.

Karun Chandhok

It was Karun Chandhok who did the fastest lap (2:15.489) but because of his penatly in Valencia Senna was on Pole Position for Race1.

GP2 press conference after qualifine

Saturday just before the start of Race 1:

The cars are rolling to their start positions, time for some last shots before the race. While everybody was getting ready to race it started to rain. It was heavy enough to put rain tires on the cars. The field started behind the Merecdes SL63 AMG Safty Car for 2 laps.

After the green flag Bruno was pulling a gap of 1.5 seconds but after a couple of laps Parente was putting pressure on Bruno. The track was drying and it was Zuber who made the first pitstop. He went to slicks and not much longer the championship contenders Senna and Pantano came in at the same time for their stops.

I was standing in front of the Isport crew and saw the drama coming.. Bruno had to much wheelspin on the cold slicks and wet floor. Even that nobody got hurt (just a scary moment for one of the DPR wheelgun men) the stewards gave Senna a drive through pentaly for an unsafe release. The first mistake that the stewards made that weekend.

Isport pit stop for Bruno Senna

Lap 21 and Alberto Valerio went off very hard. The Safty Car came out again and during this period Pantano had problems onboard. The car had no drive for a split moment. He could manage the car back to normal and after the Safty Car came in Bruno made his drive through penalty.

Grosjean was awake and took the lead from Parente while the Piquet Sports drivers had a battle on their own. It was Zuber who took 3rd.

Pantano had to climb up the field for some points and in the final lap he knocked out Lucas di Grassi. For this move Pantano got banned to drive the second race of the weekend. Again a mistake from the stewards. A 10 place grid penalty or a 25 second penalty would be fair.

Lucas di Grassi disappointed with the move from Pantano

The Unofficial top 3 was.
1) Grosjean
2) Parente
3) Zuber

Top 3 Race 1

After the race Zuber also got disqualified for something wrong on his car and so Maldonado took the points for 3rd place.

Zuber telling about his race

GP2 Series Race 2 | Spa Francorchamps 2008

Sunday morning 9.30am, time to roll the GP2 cars back to the start grid.

Vitaly Petrov

The Belgian racing fans were happy because local hero Jerome D’Ambrosio was on Pole Position.

Jerome D’Ambrosio

With 11th spot and Patano banned from the race Bruno Senna could take revenge on the stolen victory.

Bruno Senna

Like yesterday it started to rain just before the start. This time it was not so heavy so the drives could hold their slicks on.

At the start Karun Chandhok was touched by Sakon Yamamotto. Both could go on but lost alot of places.

Sakon Yamamotto

Bruno Senna was fighting his way up through the field. In lap 5 the Safty Car had to come out again because  Alberto Valerio went off.

One lap later Alvaro Parente, who was on the podium yesterday had a huge lock up in the Bus Stop Chichane and his race was over as well.

It was cold that morning and the brakes on the GP2 cars were cooling down. Just one lap back into the race Bruno Senna had a moment at the Bus Stop Chichane, attempted to avoid a crash with Buemi, went on the curbs and damaged the car to much to continue.

Bruno Senna

After the race Bruno told it was better to lose 1 point from 6th place than making a crash and have penalty for the next race.

The race went on and while Asmer, Filippi and Soucek also didn’t drove the full race distance it was Maldonado who made a great move in the final stages of the race on D’Ambrosio for the lead.

Vitaly Petrov

A good weekend for Maldonado and a horrible weekend for Isport, Bruno Senna, Giorgio Pantano and Andreas Zuber.

Podium:

1) Maldonado
2) D’Ambrosio
3) Petrov