with Commanding Win

Timo Glock took back the championship momentum from Lucas di Grassi in Sunday’s GP2 Series race in Istnabul. The iSport International drive crushed his opposition to beat Xandi Negrao across the line by almost ten seconds, with Adam Carroll taking third position.

A difficult race for Lucas di Grassi saw him finish out of the points for only the second time this season, handing Timo a two point advantage in the championship fight.

Race  Report: 

Pole-sitter  Karun  Chandhok  made  a  great  getaway  to  lead  the  fast-starting  Kazuki Nakajima and Xandi Negrao into the first corner, with Borja Garcia, Timo, Adam, Giorgio Pantano and Lucas in hot pursuit. By the end of the second lap, Timo was up into third place, having dispatched both Borja and Xandi as Lucas was stuck in eighth and out of the points. The Brazilian was trying hard to get around Giorgio, but on the third lap hit the Italian into a spin. While Lucas rose to seventh, the long term consequences for his race would be vast. By the ninth lap the top three were split by just 0.9 seconds as Timo hounded Kazuki, who in turn was applying  massive  pressure  on  Karun.  The  Indian  was  soaking  it  all  up  and  never  looked  troubled however. 

Lucas  meanwhile  was  charging  and  passed  Adam  for  sixth  on  the  tenth  lap  into  the  first corner.  Two  laps  later  however,  the  race  was  turned  on  its  head.  Kazuki  could  contain  himself  no longer, and at the final corner made a rash lunge up the inside of Karun. The pair collided, with Karun’s left rear tyre punctured, and Kazuki running off with him. While the Japanese was able to rejoin the track, Karun’s race was run, and Timo scampered through into what would be an unassailable lead.

Kazuki was given a driver through penalty for hitting Karun, and at the same time Lucas received the same penalty for his moment with Giorgio. When the positions leveled out, Timo led Xandi to his first podium, Adam in third, Borja, Vitaly Petrov and Bruno Senna in sixth after Luca Filippi had run wide in the closing laps to gift the Brazilian the final point. But Timo was the man of the moment, and with team-mate Andi Zuber taking the point for fastest lap, iSport International left Turkey on a high.

Timo had retaken the lead of the championship, but for the first time this year had seen that Lucas could win races too. With six races left to go, its still either man’s title for the taking. What about the championship? Timo leads the championship on 66 points, two ahead of Lucas on 64. Luca Filippi still remains third on an increased tally of 37 points, one ahead of Giorgio and Kazuki, who  in  turn  are  two  ahead  of  Adam. 

In  the  team’s  championship,  iSport  maintain  their  lead  on  94 points, 22 ahead of ART Grand Prix with Super Nova third on 50.  

1st Timo Glock: iSport International. 37:21.489 This win is only for the mechanics, because they are perfect. In the end it is great to fight back, and when  you  look  back  and  see  how  many  races  we  had  without  points,  six  races  is  quite  frustrating because I think we showed today we are the guys to beat,

2ndXandi Negrai: Minardi Piquet Sports +9.469 It’s fantastic. It’s just amazing. Glock in the beginning had incredible pace and he passed me – I couldn’t hold him and I didn’t want to hold him too much to not lose pace, so we opened the gap and then Nakajima had an accident so I catch the second position.

3rd Adam Carroll: FMS International +10.884 I was hoping this would happen! I've had a podium here ever year, and if you've got the car it's good. It's a real driver's circuit with high speed corners, low speed corners: it's a good place, and it's hot so it's a good test for everybody.