GP2 - Season 2007

Andreas Zuber claimed a well-deserved first win of 2007 in the GP2 Series feature race at Silverstone.

The 22-year-old Austrian led away from pole position and, with the exception of the pit-stops shuffling the order for a handful of laps, led from start to finish for the iSport team.

Britain's Mike Conway took the best result of his career in second, 1.815 seconds behind Zuber after chasing the winner all the way, while Kazuki Nakajima claimed his first podium in third for DAMS.

The start was an unusually calm affair with the front three rows all getting away cleanly and Zuber and Conway, who were separated by 1.3 seconds by the time the pit-stops began, gapping third place Lucas di Grassi by six seconds.

ART driver di Grassi was holding up a train of cars as early as lap three and, after passing Nakajima for fourth at the start, championship leader Timo Glock was not keen to stay behind the Brazilian.

Glock made his move around the outside of the Abbey chicane on lap four, squeezing di Grassi out and allowing Briton Adam Carroll through too in his FMS car.

That's how it stayed until the stops, when Carroll launched his move for victory. Staying out four laps longer than Conway and three more than Zuber allowed him to erase most of the gap and he emerged right on the tail of the Super Nova driver.

But his victory chances disappeared when he was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, dropping him back to an eventual sixth place.

So that left Zuber to cruise to his second career win and the first win since the Istanbul sprint race last year ahead of Conway.

The impressive Nakajima had made it by di Grassi at the stops and then took advantage of a problem for Glock, who found himself stuck in the pit-lane for seven laps, robbing him of any chance of a good finish.

So he completed the podium for DAMS with di Grassi and Luca Filippi in the second Super Nova car behind in fifth. The Italian's result means he now trails Glock - who won a bonus point for fastest lap - by only four points instead of eight.

All three of them though benefited from the retirements of Giorgio Pantano and Nicolas Lapierre. After starting 13th, Pantano made it up to ninth by the end of lap one and an early pit-stop had him as high as fifth - ahead of Nakajima - when his Campos car's engine blew on lap 18.

DAMS driver Lapierre crashed out with a suspension failure a lap later at Copse, leaving the battle for the minor points much less congested.

Trident driver Pastor Maldonado took seventh while the final point - and pole for the sprint race - went to Roldan Rodriguez' Minardi-Piquet machine.

Vitaly Petrov ran a trouble-free race to ninth while Michael Ammermuller fell backwards after running sixth early on to finish tenth.

He only just held off the charging Bruno Senna, who started 26th and last but battled through the field to finish 11th.

Зубер выиграл. впервые

Adam Carroll today became the ninth driver to win a GP2 Series race in the first nine races of the 2007 season... driving the number nine FMS International car!


The Ulsterman delighted the British crowds with a typically ballsy drive, to take his first win of the season on just his second weekend back in the series. Pastor Maldonado came home second for Trident Racing while Kazuki Nakajima popped in his second podium of the weekend in third. Race Report: At the start it was Pastor who sped into the lead as pole sitter Roldan Rodriguez bogged down. He was followed through turn one by a fast starting Lucas di Grassi, but by the time the cars reached Hangar Straight, Adam had leapt past the Brazilian and set off after Pastor. For the next 16 laps we were treated to a fine spectacle as the pair traded tenths of a second, never split by more than a second.

Behind them Timo Glock was making good progress towards the points, but appeared to be spun out by a tap from Adrian Zaugg at Luffield. His weekend over, Timo now has two weeks to reflect before his home race at the Nürburgring.

Kazuki meanwhile really was on a mission, and on lap nine frightened fourth placed Roldan into running wide at the Farm chicane. The Japanese was through and off after Lucas. Up at the front, Adam was heaping the pressure on Pastor, and when the Venezuelan appeared to slow in front of the Brit, the FMS driver slung his car around the outside of the leader at Farm, and leapt into the lead. Kazuki had, by now, closed up on Lucas, and passed him with a brave move on the inside of Copse to get up onto the podium.

Adam pulled out a two second lead on Pastor with relative ease, as Kazuki reeled in the Monaco winner with every passing lap. As Adam crossed the finish line to the delight of his fans, and of course his team, Pastor had just managed to keep the rampant fastest lap holder Kazuki behind him, as Lucas held on for fourth ahead of Mike Conway and Andi Zuber.

What about the championship? Timo now hasn't scored a point under race conditions for four races, but still leads the championship on 39. Lucas is now second on 37, with Luca third on 35. In the teams' championship, iSport International lead on 59, with Super Nova International second on 47, four points ahead of ART Grand Prix.

1st Adam Carroll - FMS International.
It's unbelievable. People get different emotions from winning but it's just such a relief that I can still do it, and given the right team and the right opportunity I know I can run as hard as any of them and race with the best. Hopefully now we can be consistent and prove that we are as good as the guys who have won this championship and hopefully we'll get the shot at Formula One.

2nd Pastor Maldonado - Trident Racing. +0
It's my second podium. I think we can fight for all the season. We need to work, we need to improve a little bit more and improve the car to be on the top in all the races, but we are working and its better to be on the top again.

3rd Kazuki Nakajima : Dams. +
Yeah, it's really, really good weekend, a great weekend. I think this is our potential. We had some sign from the beginning of the season but we couldn't make it as a result. Now we could do that and also we had a great race in this weekend so I'm really happy.

Я видела как его Пантано прошел
на самом деле это не важно, во второй гонки очки только за 6 мест и за бест лап