Di Grassi Takes First Win and Championship Lead

Lucas di Grassi has taken his first GP2 Series victory this afternoon in Istanbul with a faultless drive from sixth on the grid, with Giorgio Pantano and Adam Carroll finishing in the final podium positions.  The  Brazilian’s  win,  coupled  with  Timo  Glock’s  fourth  place  sees  Lucas  take  the championship lead for the first time in 2007 with just five races remaining. Race  Report:  A  great  start  from  Andi  Zuber  from  third  on  the  grid  saw  the  iSport  International driver tear past poleman Luca Filippi and second place starter Timo into the first corner. Behind them, Mike Conway spun, taking out Andy Soucek and Adrian Zaugg in the process and calling out the safety car.

As the drivers made their way through the first lap, Luca spun into retirement, leaving Andi and Timo at the front with the fast starting Lucas third. As  soon  as  they  were  able,  the  field  poured  into  the  pits  to  make their compulsory stops. Only four  drivers  stayed  out  –  Timo,  the  Minardi  Piquet  Sports  duo  of  Xandi  Negrao  and  Roldan Rodriguez,  and  Trident’s  Ricardo  Risatti.  Behind  Ricardo  then  sat  Andi,  Lucas  and  Adam,  and when the safety car pulled in on lap five Timo set about building up a lead that would allow him the possibility of making his stop in real time without losing too many places. The  real  fight  for  the  lead  however  was  being  waged  behind  between  Andi,  Lucas,  Adam  and Giorgio.  As  Ricardo  fell  back  through  the  pack,  Andi  was  looking  for  a  way  past  third  placed Roldan. The pair were never split by more than a second and for almost 20 laps the iSport man could  not  find  a  way  through.  Then,  on  lap  22,  Andi  made  his  move  and  got  it  horribly  wrong.

Mounting the grass run off, he had no traction, and careered off and into the gravel at Turn 12. An almost certain win was thrown away in a heartbeat and Andi was clearly angry with himself. All that left Lucas in the de-facto lead. As first Xandi and the Roldan came into the pits, we were left with the championship top two in the first two places. But Timo’s stop had yet to be taken, and despite a brace of fastest laps, the German just couldn’t pull out a sufficient gap. When he finally came in on Lap 30, Lucas took the lead and never looked back. Behind him however, Giorgio and Adam were going hell for leather, with the Italian finally making it through at the first corner on Lap 32, just two laps from the chequered flag. Timo had emerged in fourth place from his pitstop and by the final lap had also caught up to a now clearly struggling Adam.  The  pair  fought  through  the  final  corners  but  Adam  held  on  for  the  final  podium  place ahead  of  Timo,  Borja  Garcia,  Kazuki  Nakajima,  Xandi  and  Karun  Chandhok  who  took  the  final point for eighth and pole for tomorrow’s race. Nicolas Lapierre took the point for fastest lap.

1st Lucas di Grassi: ART Grand Prix. 57:11.277 I  think  the  race  win  came  in  the  right  moment.  Its  awesome  to  get  the  championship  lead  by winning  the  race,  also  a  feature  race,  a  Saturday  race  which  is  long.  When  you  pit  in  the beginning the race feels very long. The car felt really good and I could manage to keep a good gap from Adam and Giorgio and I am very happy, very satisfied with the win.

2nd Giorgio Pantano: Campos Grand Prix. +1.371 I  was  just  respecting  Adam  because  he  is  my  friend,  otherwise  I  would  try  to  overtake  him  in some not good place. But he was quick until ten or 12 laps to the end and I was allowed to stay close to him to overtake at the end of the straight. I think from the beginning of the championship we have shown what we can do but were just unlucky, shall we say.

3rd Adam Carroll: Petrol Ofisi FMS International. +5.830 When the safety car came out that was exactly what we didn't plan on: we thought because of the run off area here there wouldn't be a safety car. When everybody came in the safe thing to do is to go with two tyres just to make the time up. After that the balance was very, very difficult. I could see Giorgio was closing but the tyres were finished at the end so there was nothing I could do.