Pantano keeps cool to win in Turkey
Giorgio Pantano won the GP2 Series feature race at Istanbul Park today in convincing fashion, leading from start to finish in his Racing Engineering car
Even though he had a late safety car to contend with, Pantano kept his cool to win by 1.7 seconds ahead of Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix) and Andi Zuber (Piquet Sports).
Pantano took the lead from the start, holding his pole position advantage into Turn 1. Behind him, Grosjean grabbed second from Zuber, while Adam Carroll (who started third) and Bruno Senna (who started fifth) both bogged down badly.
Senna's race was ruined when he clipped another car on the approach to Turn 1, damaging his front wing. He would finish 15th after being forced to make two pitstops.
At the front, Pantano pulled out as much as a 7.8 seconds lead over Grosjean, but all his good work was undone by the safety car, required for Alberto Valerio's spin at Turn 8, which left him stranded just off the racing line at the fastest corner on the circuit.
This allowed the three leaders to pit under yellows, and they resumed in the same order. Zuber lost time at the restart, which was effectively a six-lap sprint to the finish on new rubber.
Pantano pulled out a three-second lead immediately, and then cruised to victory, while Zuber made a poor restart and had to fight his way back onto Grosjean's tail, which he only managed at the finish.
Karun Chandhok was a lonely fourth for iSport, ahead of Vitaly Petrov (Campos), Sebastien Buemi (Arden) and Javier Villa, who dropped from sixth to eighth when passed by Buemi and Carroll, but got one place back on the penultimate lap.
Carroll will now start Sunday's race from reverse grid pole.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Pantano Racing Engineering 56:51.163
2. Grosjean ART Grand Prix + 1.792
3. Zuber Piquet Sports + 2.252
4. Chandhok iSport International + 11.321
5. Petrov Campos Team + 12.474
6. Buemi Trust Team Arden + 13.773
7. Villa Racing Engineering + 14.894
8. Carroll FMS International + 16.675
9. Conway Trident Racing + 17.743
10. Valles BCN Competicion + 19.012
11. Tung Trident Racing + 20.346
12. Rodriguez FMS International + 21.238
13. Nunes DPR + 22.507
14. Buurman Trust Team Arden + 23.294
15. Senna iSport International + 23.765
16. Filippi ART Grand Prix + 1 Lap
17. Hanley Campos Team + 1 Lap
18. Valerio Durango + 2 Laps
19. Soucek Super Nova Racing + 3 Laps
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Laps
D'ambrosio Dams 29
Maldonado Piquet Sports 19
Pavlovic BCN Competicion 16
Ricci DPR 8
Parente Super Nova Racing 7
Kobayashi Dams 1
Fastest lap: Zuber, 1:33.482 on lap 33
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Why MotoGP’s COTA thriller was just what Liberty wanted to see
NASCAR and MotoGP would benefit from crossover weekend, say Trackhouse stars
How IMSA's GTP revival proved worthy of its name
Acosta: MotoGP paddock 'needs more people like Kevin Schwantz'
What is the cooldown room in F1? All you need to know about the procedure
Bottas: Permanent fix for Sauber F1 pitstop woes "by Imola"
Quartararo: Marquez's Honda MotoGP exit "woke a lot of people up" at Yamaha
Why Alpine’s rigorous training camp yields telling insights into its juniors
Can F2's relaxed title favourite prove a point to Alpine?
Why F1's junior logjam isn't entirely a product of current issues
Inside the racing university moulding F1 drivers and engineers alike
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments