The 2008 GP2 Series Championship is decided this weekend at the Italian track of Monza, the venue for the last event of the season, with the Racing Engineering driver Giorgio Pantano as the hot favourite to clinch the crown of the Formula 1 feeder series.
Giorgio goes to his favourite track leading the championship, with an 11 point advantage on his closest rival, the Brazilian Bruno Senna, and 18 over the other two drivers who still have a chance, although minimal, of fighting for the championship, another Brazilian Lucas Di Grassi and the French-Swiss Romain Grosjean. With a maximum of 20 points available for the driver who can take the pole, win both races and also set the two fastest laps of the weekend, the advantage for the driver from the Spanish team looks to be good enough to give him the best chance of taking the title, especially bearing in mind that at Monza Pantano has a spectacular record of victories, with wins in all the single-seater categories in which he has taken part during racing career.
The aim, therefore, is clear for Racing Engineering, to put once again at the disposal of their driver a competitive and reliable car, as they have being doing for the whole season, so that Giorgio can assure himself of a championship that he had deserved more than anybody from the beginning of year. With five victories to his name, the driver of the Dallara number 12, in the Telefónica and Repsol colours, has been regularly the fastest of the GP2 Series 2008 and in Monza he expects to close a great season in the best possible way, winning the Championship as his own words reflect:
"We are arriving to the last round of this year’s championship and it is taking place at my home track. I love Monza and will try to do my best there, and hopefully win. It would be really great to win in front of my fans."
For the other driver of the Spanish team, Javier Villa, Monza is the last opportunity to obtain, in this 2008 season, a result worthy of his driving skills and up to the expectations with which he started the season. Following his good results from 2007 Javi has suffered too many up and downs along the year that have prevented him from regularly fighting for the top places, as was his aim.
In Monza, both Giorgio and Javi will face one of the tracks with the most history in the motor sport world, where the high speeds continue being the principal characteristic, although the different chicanes that have been inserted between its long straights, as the average speeds were raising, have made it lose part of the challenge that it had in its original shape. Despite this, for tradition and difficulty, Monza is the ideal stage for the finale of the GP2 Series 2008 and Racing Engineering comes to the historic Italian track with the greatest hopes and with the objective of returning to its home base, at Sanlucar de Barrameda (Spain) with the championship for their driver Giorgio Pantano.
