Pantano wins to retake series lead
Giorgio Pantano retook the lead of the GP2 Series at Magny-Cours in France by winning the feature race after his two rivals, Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean, dropped out with mechanical failures
Pantano now leads the championship by nine points, but was only on course to finish third when first Senna, then Grosjean, hit trouble just ahead of him. Senna led from the start but began to experience a slipping clutch from lap 10.
Following his pitstop on lap 18, he emerged well clear of Pantano, but Grosjean got between them, having pitted three laps earlier. Grosjean had lost his front row position at the start, when Pantano scraped past him into Turn 1.
Grosjean hit the front at Adelaide hairpin on lap 20, as Senna's clutch problem intensified, forcing the Brazilian out soon after.
Pantano was very quick after his pitstop, and got the extra point for the race's fastest lap, and zoomed right onto Grosjean's tail. He got within 0.3 seconds on lap 27, but then dropped back as the best of his tyres went away.
He needn't have worried: Grosjean too suddenly slowed with a hydraulic problem, and coasted to the pits, gifting him a nine-second lead over returnee Lucas di Grassi.
Pastor Maldonado completed the podium, after a lightning start elevated him from seventh on the grid to fifth on the opening lap.
Vitaly Petrov just held off Maldonado's teammate Andi Zuber for fourth, with Jerome d'Ambrosio taking full advantage of an early pitstop to jump up to an eventual sixth.
Karun Chandhok and Mike Conway will fill the reverse grid front row tomorrow, having finished seventh and eighth.
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Pantano Racing Engineering 59:17.927
2. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team + 8.607
3. Maldonado Piquet Sports + 12.436
4. Petrov Barwa Campos Team + 17.081
5. Zuber Piquet Sports + 17.485
6. D'ambrosio Dams + 18.482
7. Chandhok iSport International + 20.330
8. Conway Trident Racing + 23.024
9. Parente Super Nova Racing + 28.848
10. Filippi ART Grand Prix + 41.255
11. Nunes DPR + 54.160
12. Buurman Trust Team Arden + 57.581
13. Soucek Super Nova Racing + 57.817
14. Villa Racing Engineering + 58.529
15. Valles BCN Competicion + 61.455
16. Iaconelli BCN Competicion + 80.438
17. Asmer FMS International + 81.042
18. Valerio Durango + 2 laps
Retirements:
Driver Team Laps
Grosjean ART Grand Prix 34
Rodriguez FMS International 33
Buemi Trust Team Arden 28
Hanley Durango 24
Senna iSport International 22
Herck DPR 16
Tung Trident Racing 14
Kobayashi Dams 0
Fastest lap: Pantano, 1:25.352, on lap 24
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