Lola Heritage

11/07/10

AUTO GP: IACONELLI'S TURN IN RACE 2

Call him "Mister Race Two": Carlos Iaconelli won the Auto GP short race at Magny-Cours, exactly as he did in Imola and Spa. Starting from pole position, Iaconelli had to keep at bay a charging Jan Charouz in the first laps, and then extended his lead creating a 1.5s gap that he managed to keep until the checquered flag, taking another six points: thanks to this he is now third in the championship, tied on points with Duncan Tappy and Jan Charouz.

The Czech driver was the only one able to threathen Iaconelli's lead: with a great start he overtook Piscopo, who was starting in front of him, and then he tried to put some pressure on the Durango driver in the first corner and at the Adelaide hairpin. However Iaconelli didn't make any mistakes and Charouz had to settle for second.

Piscopo was third, and decided not to risk anything in order to grab the four valuable points that gave him back the championship lead. Behind him was team-mate Duncan Tappy, ahead of Charouz-Gravity Racing's Esteban Guerrieri.

Meanwhile, the race was just a few metres long for Romain Grosjean and Fabio Onidi: the italian driver stalled his car at the start and the Frenchman of DAMS couldn't avoid him. The contact wasn't too hard but the Safety-Car had to go out for one lap to allow track clearing by the marshals. Making the most of this crash was Kiwi Jonny Reid, the SuperNova was really quick off the line and he managed to pass Julian Leal. From then he made mistakes despite a lot of pressure from the Trident driver, grabbing one point.

A very unlucky race for Jake Rosenzweig and Giorgio Pantano: the US driver stalled his car at the start of the warm-up lap and was demoted to the last row as a consequence. He did a good first part of the race, climbing the standings together with Pantano and even passing the Italian driver on lap 8. Unfortunately he spun while fighting with Miguez for 8th position. Pantano meanwhile had to retire due to a problem with the gearbox control unit.

Carlos Iaconelli:

"I'd have preferred finishing 6th yesterday starting from 3rd today but I have to admit that starting from pole is a good help for winning race 2. I had a good start and from then on I just had to manage the race because my pace was good. Now I'm just 8 points from the series lead so anything can happen".

Jan Charouz:

"I had a really good start, and pushing harder I think that passing Iaconelli could have been possible. Anyway I preferred to be cautious to avoid wheelspin, and I was cautious again at the hairpin: I had a chance to overtake but I decided not to take too much risks as the room he left was really tight. Anyway it's my second Auto GP podium and I'm third in the standings, so I'm satisfied about the weekend".

Edoardo Piscopo:

"My aim was getting back on top of the stadings and I did that, I just feel sorry for the bad start that costed me one place. I'm happy anyway because I'm keeping the lead despite having lots of strong opponents: now I just have to get back the feeling with the car that I had before the crash in Imola".

Race 2

1 Carlos Iaconelli DURANGO 16 laps in 25:55.458
2 Jan Charouz CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING +1.606
3 Edoardo Piscopo DAMS +2.971
4 Duncan Tappy DAMS +5.404
5 Esteban Guerrieri CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING +7.254
6 Jonny Reid SUPERNOVA RACING +11.645
7 Julian Leal TRIDENT RACING +13.117
8 Celso Miguez RP MOTORSPORT +26.674
9 Stefano Bizzarri RP MOTORSPORT +40.294
10 Adrien Tambay CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING +1 lap
11 Giorgio Pantano EURONOVA RACING +4 laps
12 Jake Rosenzweig SUPERNOVA RACING +8 laps
DNF: Romain Grosjean DAMS Crash - Fabio Onidi LAZARUS Crash

Fastest lap: lap 13 by Adrien Tambay in 1'29"670, avg 177,1 km/h

Prize Money classification:

1. Grosjean (12 points) 80.000 euros; 2. Tappy (11 points) 50.000 euros; 3. Charouz (9 points) 30.000 euros; 4. Iaconelli (7 points) 15.000 euros; 5. Piscopo e Onidi (6 points) 12.500 euros.

Drivers standings:

1. Piscopo 32 points; 2. Grosjean 30 ; 3. Iaconelli, Charouz & Tappy 24; 6. Filippi 23; 7. Onidi 18; 8. Tambay 17; 9. Reid 11; 10. Arabadzhiev & Pantano 8; 12. Miguez & Zaugg 6; 14. Leal, Rosenzweig & Guerrieri 5; 17. Grubmuller, Coletti & Leo 2.