The Glock Strikes

In the GP2 series' closest title fight to date - one in which 12 drivers won races - iSport's Timo Glock overcame several hurdles to prevail. By CHARLES BRADLEY

"It wasn't as good as last year," says one Formula 1 expert. "No, and not even as good as the year before," agrees a second pundit. "Oh shut up," I say. "You can only judge seasons on their own merit and, if you want to get into an argument about it, by the time they were in similar equipment, Timo Glock beat Lewis Hamilton more times than not in the second half of last year."

Bar room banter aside, as well as the dismissive comments of certain F1 team principals, to underestimate Glock's title year is to do him a massive disservice. The manner in which he built the iSport team around him was hugely impressive, and the reason he didn't totally dominate the championship (although in many ways, he did) was more due to outside factors than anything else.

The fact he had most of the paddock pulling for him in the Valencia finale spoke volumes about who deserved the title, as rival Lucas di Grassi magnanimously agreed afterwards.

WHY DIDN'T GLOCK WIN THE TITLE SOONER?

A mixture of bad fortune, poor reliability and, on two occasions, mistakes. Let's get the latter out of the way first. The Magny-Cours startline shunt with team-mate Andi Zuber will haunt him forever - he can chuckle about it now, but at the time it was an abject disaster.

His other driver error was at Silverstone, where he spun off in qualifying in ultra-tricky conditions - a mixture of cold weather and hard-compound tyres didn't mix. But his Silverstone weekend was nixed anyway by his main bugbear of the season: reliability woes. Gearbox internals were the main problem (although at Silverstone it was the alternator) and not only cost him points but placed question marks in his head. He had to win this championship, end of story, and here was an outside factor that could cost him everything he'd worked so hard for.

You had to see the brooding anger, as he demanded an audience with series boss Bruno Michel to explain what could be done about it, to appreciate what it meant to him. The only other time he lost his cool was during his confrontation with Ricardo Risatti, after the Argentinian had bizarrely wiped him off the track on the installation lap at Spa.

Yet, in between the times of turmoil, he could still produce the goods on the track. And while it might not have been the easy run to the title that he'd been hoping for, the experience will stand him in good stead for the pitfalls of F1 that will no doubt await him - hopefully next year.

HOW DID iSPORT TURN THE TABLES ON ART?

When Glock arrived at Silverstone last year, the lights came on at iSport. Here was the driver they'd been searching for - one who could provide the quality feedback they craved, one who was always on call for a debate about set-up with his engineers, one who was as dedicated as them about winning this championship.

They knew there was room for improvement, and did not subscribe to the 'ART must be cheating' cop-out bandied around the paddock in the previous two seasons. They knew the answer lay in the detail, deep in the telemetry, and when Zuber joined the driving strength this year, Glock had the perfect partner who could push him, in terms of speed at least.

On the flipside, ART appeared to have flatlined somewhat. In di Grassi and Michael Ammermuller, it had potential race winners, but could either stand up to be championship challengers? Ammermuller certainly couldn't. He broke his wrist in a clash with Kazuki Nakajima in the opening round, and never really recovered from it. That meant di Grassi had a succession of team-mates in Sebastien Buemi and Mikhail Aleshin, neither of whom had the experience necessary to back him up on set-up issues.

Factor in the absence of team lynchpin Frederic Vasseur in the opening races, who had undergone back surgery over the winter and couldn't fly to races, and the dominators of the previous seasons were on the back foot from the off.

WHY DID SO MANY DRIVERS WIN THIS YEAR?

The fact it took Glock until race 10 to become the first double winner of the season was nothing short of staggering. In total, no fewer than 12 winners took to the top step of the podium, proving GP2's incredible aptitude for the unpredictable.

Glock scored five wins in all - but only one feature race, on home soil at the Nurburgring. Javier Villa was the next most prolific, and no one would have predicted that, even Racing Engineering team boss Alfonso de Orleans (he did, however, bet a sizeable amount on Hamilton to win the F1 world title at odds of 70-1).

Villa really came of age in 2007, and although all his triumphs came in reverse grid races, they demonstrated a maturity that belied his tender years.

Giorgio Pantano (Campos Grand Prix) was the only driver to win more than one feature race (at Magny-Cours and Monza) and the way he helped turn Campos Grand Prix from also-rans to series frontrunners was nothing short of remarkable and a credit to all involved. He also suffered badly in the reliability stakes, which canned his title aspirations.

Other double winners (one feature, one sprint) were Adam Carroll (FMS) and Nicolas Lapierre (DAMS). Carroll did a great job when called up to replace the hugely disappointing Antonio Pizzonia, and his tenacious performances were just what FMS required.

Lapierre was once again one of the unluckiest men on the planet, with even more tales of mechanical woe and misfortune to tell, and he lost a likely second sprint win at Magny-Cours when his brakes failed while leading.

WHO ELSE WON RACES?

Pastor Maldonado scored perhaps the most dominant victory of the season around the streets of Monaco for Trident. In a performance reminiscent of Hamilton around the Principality a year previously, Maldonado was consistently three-tenths of a second per lap faster than his rivals, and only once looked like binning it. Elsewhere he was less polished, and then broke his collarbone while training, which caused him to miss the last four rounds. He's quick, but wild too.

Luca Filippi's success in the opening round in Bahrain wouldn't be repeated again all year. That in itself was strange, as he showed great pace all through the year, and only lost third place in the standings on countback to Pantano. After Luca's disjointed 2006, Super Nova gave him a solid platform on which to perform, and he seemed to gel well with the former FIA F3000-winning squad.

Speaking of ex-F3000 winners, Bruno Senna scored a majestic win for Arden International at Barcelona, which was a testament to his ability to nurse the car home on well- worn tyres and keep out of reach of a charging Glock. After a great start to the season, Senna fell into a mid-season malaise, failing to score for eight consecutive races. From Italy (where he borrowed team-mate Adrian Zaugg's set-up) onwards he looked more like his old self, and post-season testing has proved as much. Arden, meanwhile, must hope for better fortunes with the 2008 GP2 car after two years where it has been unable to match its pace of '05 with Heikki Kovalainen, and once again fell off the pace in the middle of the season.

Zuber's sole win at Silverstone was an indicator of what might have been at iSport, but he seemed to allow his despair at technical issues and shunts get the better of him, and he let his head drop. Put simply, this partnership should have been more successful - his unnecessarily rash move trying to pass a car he didn't need to in Turkey cost him a certain second feature race win.

Vitaly Petrov's feature victory in the Valencia finale was thanks to a genius tyre gamble of slicks on a damp track. To give him credit, others did the same, and he had to overcome the challenge of both Nakajima and team-mate Pantano to win. No mean feat.

The feel-good win of the season was Karun Chandhok's success at Spa. Never mind the popularity of the Indian around the paddock, he was robbed of a likely victory at Istanbul when Nakajima punted him off. The manner in which Chandhok won at Spa, passing Andy Soucek (DPR) around the outside at Les Combes, underlined his potential for the future. It was also a well-earned success for perennial hard-tryers Durango.

Finally, di Grassi's feature race win in Turkey was his only appearance on the top step all year, and was typical Lucas - keeping his head while those around him faltered.

WHO WAS THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR?

This honour was undoubtedly bestowed on Nakajima, who showed prodigious speed in his DAMS-run car on many occasions. But somehow he contrived not to win a race, mainly due to errors on his part. He enjoyed a great purple patch of results mid-season, becoming a regular fixture on the podium, but his best chances of winning - in Hungary, Turkey and Valencia - just got away from him.

He certainly shone on circuits that he'd learned during his Formula 1 tests with Williams yet, surprisingly for all his speed, Valencia was his first GP2 pole. However, he'd done enough to get his maiden grand prix start in Brazil this weekend, and has been tipped for a season with ART next year if a full-time F1 gig does not arise.

WHO WAS BEST OF THE REST?

A top-10 finish in the championship was a good reward for Borja Garcia's efforts with Durango. He put in some typically gritty drives, especially in Hungary, Turkey and whenever the series visited his home turf in Spain.

Mike Conway came to GP2 as British Formula 3 champion and Macau Grand Prix winner, so much was expected with him at Super Nova, but time and again he seemed blessed with bad luck and misfortune. Only at Silverstone, where he finished a convincing second to Zuber in the feature race, did he really shine. His pace in qualifying (or lack of it) really let him down, and he struggled more than most on tracks that were new to him, which was multiplied by the lack of track time during the race weekends.

Soucek's late run of successive podiums in sprint races at Spa and Valencia saved DPR's season. David Price looked to have sold his team pre-season, only for the deal to fall through at the 11th hour, forcing him to reform his own squad. Soucek was on course for a number of points finishes before finally making a breakthrough at Spa, which came less than a week after he'd made a crass error at Monza that could have had much more dire consequences. But more of that later.

WHAT HAPPENED TO PIQUET SPORTS?

Last year's runners-up with Nelson Jr were also-rans this year. Xandi Negrao was on the front row for the Bahrain opener, but his season turned to rubbish soon after, and his hospitalisation after shunting over the top of Conway in Barcelona, and crashing in free practice in Monaco, set the tone for the rest of the year. A podium in Turkey - his first in three years of trying! - was scant reward for what should have been so much better.

Team-mate Roldan Rodriguez drove a stormer in Barcelona, and was very competitive in Hungary, but didn't really show much consistency elsewhere in his rookie season. He showed a decent enough turn of pace to be one to keep an eye on next year, though.

Post-season testing, notably with Carroll on board, showed the team was actually on the money with its car's pace. It can reflect on this year as one to forget.

HOW WAS ERNESTO VISO NOT KILLED?

Only a mixture of Gian Paolo Dallara and God can answer that one (some in single-seater circles would argue they are one and the same). Viso was just a couple of corners into his GP2 return with Racing Engineering when he was launched into one of the most violent survivable accidents in recent years at Magny-Cours.

The Venezuelan was completely unsighted when safety car boards and yellow flags were displayed on the exit of the Adelaide hairpin. When Kazuki Nakajima braked, and Ammermuller did likewise, jinking to the right to avoid him, the flat-out Viso hit both and was sent into a horrifying flight, landing on top of the concrete wall, crashing through an advertising hoarding and narrowly avoiding both a bridge parapet and some marshals.

His chassis actually split on the right-hand cockpit wall, but that was irrelevant - what was important was that it stood up to the multiple impacts. The fact it was shattered afterwards was just a consequence of doing its job.

'Ernie' spent a night in hospital and returned to the track the next day, full of drugs yet otherwise unharmed. It was a great escape on a grand scale.

WHO ELSE HAD BIG ONES?

Series frontrunners Filippi (Super Nova) and Zuber (iSport) both suffered frightening-looking accidents. Filippi's occurred in Hungary as he exited the final corner. His left- rear suspension - damaged in an earlier clash with Nakajima - collapsed and sent him into the wall.

The head-on impact with the barrier left a Tom and Jerry-style front-of-a-GP2-car imprint on the barrier, and the straps of Luca's HANS device were stretched beyond repair, his chin pinned to his chest during the dizzying series of spins that followed. Amazingly, Super Nova was able to rebuild the car for him to race the next day - albeit at a cost of €66,000.

Zuber's Monza accident was a chassis-killer, however. It happened in stupid circumstances, as Andi Soucek was rejoining the circuit in a reckless manner after ploughing off at the Parabolica. He lost control just as he exited the gravel, striking Zuber's car that was travelling at 110mph.

Fortunately, the angle was such that the impact was absorbed by the chassis longitudinally, causing multiple cracks along its flanks rather than one, potentially disastrous, blow to a single point.

The other chassis-wrecking shunt of the year was Lapierre at Silverstone, where he thinks his rear suspension broke (there were too many wrecked parts to tell afterwards) on the approach to Copse. His subsequent impact with the tyrewall sounded like a bomb exploding, but he escaped unhurt.

Oh, and the biggest near-miss of the year was Chandhok in Barcelona, who spun across the entire pack on the run to the first corner, somehow missing everyone!

WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS FOR NEXT YEAR?

We get the brave new world of the GP2/08, a sexier-looking, faster - and hopefully more reliable - chassis/engine combination. This should underline GP2's credentials as the place for F1 team principals to look for fresh talent. The potential for a couple of new teams should also give the series a fresher outlook, too.

We've also got the novelty of the Asia Series to look forward to, which kicks off in January. Using the 'old' cars, with detuned engines, it will be intriguing to see what calibre of drivers it can attract. Bring it on.

AUTOSPORT'S TOP 10

10. Bruno Senna

It's easy to forget he's only been racing for a couple of years, because his measured approach is more akin to a veteran. Instead, forget the surname and judge him in his own right. Bruno had his struggles in his first year of GP2, and winning so early didn't help that crushing weight of expectation. Watch him blossom next year.

Defining moment: Barcelona, where his deft touch on used tyres reigned supreme.

9. Pastor Maldonado

If I was a Formula 1 team boss, I'd sign Maldonado. I might only let him race once per season, but I'd sign him anyway. I'd want him purely to race at Monaco, where he was utterly peerless. One of the most uncompromising racers out there, he just needs to tidy up his act. Frustratingly, a broken collarbone put him out for final races.

Defining moment: Monaco, where he crushed the opposition.

8. Andi Zuber

Zuber at Silverstone: pole, fastest lap and victory. Zuber everywhere else: quick but infuriatingly inconsistent. He was unlucky with his disastrous start to the season - Silverstone was only his second points score in the first seven races. But he let the frustration get to him, to the point that he did some daft things.

Defining moment: Turkey, where he threw away certain victory.

7. Javier Villa

Three reverse grid wins for the 'manchild'. And it could have been five if he'd got a better start at Valencia and not rolled over so easily to Glock in Barcelona. Former team-mate Adam Carroll said the improvement in him over the last 12 months has been amazing. And he's still only 19. Frightening.

Defining moment: Magny-Cours, where he won a day after his team-mate was almost decapitated.

6. Kazuki Nakajima

Nakajima should be higher up this list, and he's only got himself to blame that he's not. His pace is beyond question, as a pole and three fastest laps will attest. But he made so many daft mistakes, and spent far too much time in the stewards' room. The best rookie, no doubt, but he should have won at least one race.

Defining moment: Turkey, where he should have won but got a drive-through.

5. Adam Carroll

It's never easy walking into a championship halfway through - especially GP2. Carroll arrived at FMFMS and delivered exactly what it wanted: an experienced hand to guide it from the driver's seat. His two wins were stunning. His overtaking moves were out of this world. A future champion, in the right car.

Defining moment: Silverstone, where his victory was sublime.

4. Luca Filippi

On his day, Filippi could produce the sort of performances that were nothing short of stunning. He hit the ground running in Bahrain, recording a stunning victory that would sadly be his one and only triumph. Super Nova boss David Sears tried to 'Anglicise' the Italian, and he certainly ended the season a more rounded driver as a result.

Defining moment: Bahrain, where he stunned everybody with his speed.

3. Lucas di Grassi

As soon as he realised his car wasn't quite a match for iSport's, di Grassi went into stealth mode. It wasn't great viewing, but it was undeniably effective. His Turkey win was typically canny, and owed much to the errors of others. Di Grassi's biggest strength is his intelligence, which allows him to out-think opponents.

Defining moment: Monza, where gearbox failure robbed him of series lead.

2. Giorgio Pantano

Only just nicked third in the championship, but really scored by helping to turn Campos from backmarker to three-time feature race winner. He won two features himself, and if he could iron out silly errors from his game, he would be unstoppable. But he wouldn't be the loveable rogue without them.

Defining moment: Monza, where he's been winning in sub-F1 categories for seven years!

1. Timo Glock

Di Grassi might have taken the fight to the final round, but in reality no one else could match Glock on pace for most of the season, unless he or iSport had an off-day or technical problem. Has won more GP2 races than anyone else in the category's short history, and stayed cool under immense, career-threatening pressure.

Defining moment: Valencia, where he wrapped up the title in style.

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