Lola Heritage

03/10/10

MONZA AUTO GP: FILIPPI WINS FINAL RACE OF THE SEASON

Luca Filippi ended the season exactly as he started it. After winning the Auto GP maiden race in Brno, the Italian driver managed to put his seal also on the championship finale, dominating the second race in Monza and giving SuperNova their first win of the season. Luca, starting from pole position, made the most of a bad start by Julian Leal, with the Colombian poleman slipping back into third place, behind Jan Charouz. From then on Filppi's race was just a strip of fast laps that allowed him to stretch his lead steadily, with the final victory never in doubt.

Behind him Jan Charouz got the fourth podium finish of the year with a really good performance, but he slowly lost ground from Filippi, ending 5" adrift from the leader. His pace was anyway good enough to keep at bay a recovering Romain Grosjean: the new Series champion wasn't perfect off the line but he made up some places very quickly: on lap 3 he passed Adrien Tambay, and then on the following lap he overtook both Federico Leo and Fabio Onidi. Between him and 3rd place Julian Leal was the only obstacle, but the Trident driver was a tough nut: he held his place until three laps to go, when Grosjean outbraked him in the first chicane. P4 was anyway a good end for a good season, in which Julian showed often a very quick pace, also clinching an impressive win in Navarra. He finished ahead of Adrien Tambay and Edoardo Piscopo, the latter boasting a strong recovery from P10 to grab the 6th place point, ahead of Federico Leo and Davide Valsecchi.

Duncan Tappy managed to defend his third place in the drivers' standings despite ending out of the points, in eleventh place. He was 3rd for a long time, but then he had to serve a drive-through for cutting a chicane.

Luca Filippi:

"I had a good start and from then on the race was easy, nobody could cope with my pace also because my car was really quick. It was very good also yesterday, but the bad qualifying ruined our chances of a good result in Race 1. I'm also happy because I won with SuperNova, they worked hard for me in the last months".

Jan Charouz:

"I managed to climb on the podium on two mighty tracks like Spa and Monza, so I'm really happy about this. Today's race was good right from the start, but Luca ahead of me was quicker, not much but just the bit he needed to get away. He deserved this win, and I can be happy of this second place".

Romain Grosjean:

"Yesterday evening, thinking about today's race, I was wondering if a win was possible, but today right after the start I lost too much time fighting with Leo and Luca and Jan got too far ahead. Anyway I'm happy to close the season with another podium finish".

Race 2

1 Luca Filippi SUPERNOVA RACING 13 laps in 21'13"694
2 Jan Charouz CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING + 5.001
3 Romain Grosjean DAMS + 7.773
4 Julian Leal TRIDENT RACING + 8.644
5 Adrien Tambay CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING + 16.128
6 Edoardo Piscopo DAMS + 16.613
7 Federico Leo TRIDENT RACING + 19.758
8 Davide Valsecchi RP MOTORSPORT + 20.506
9 Fabio Onidi LAZARUS + 22.412
10 Natacha Gachnang CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING + 27.659
11 Duncan Tappy DAMS + 30.711
12 Stefano Bizzarri RP MOTORSPORT + 35.358
13 Giuseppe Cipriani DURANGO + 43.107
14 Jonny Reid SUPERNOVA RACING + 1:06.061
15 Alexander Sims CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING + 1 Lap

Giorgio Pantano OMBRA DNF
Carlos Iaconelli DURANGO DNF

Fastest lap: Luca Filippi in 1'37"458, avg 214.0 km/h

Prize Money standings:

1. Grosjean 80.000 euros 2. Tambay 50.000 3. Filippi 30.000 4. Charouz 15.000 5. Onidi 15.000 6. Tappy 10.000.

Drivers standings:

1. Grosjean 58 points; 2. Piscopo 42; 3. Tappy 37; 4. Charouz 36; 5. Filippi 34; 6. Tambay 29; 7. Iaconelli & Onidi 24; 9. Leal 21; 10. Reid 16; 11. Arabadzhiev, Ricci & Pantano 8; 14. Miguez, Leo & Zaugg 6; 17. Rosenzweig & Guerrieri 5; 19. Grubmuller, Coletti & Leo 2.