Lola Heritage

02/10/11

MUGELLO AUTO GP RACE 2: CARROLL WINS, CECCON TAKES THE TITLE

It was a great day for Adam Carroll and Kevin Ceccon: the first won the second race of the Auto GP final weekend, giving Campos Racing their second success in two days, while the latter clinched the title, ending the championship with a three point advantage on Luca Filippi.

The first major event of the race happened at the start, when Carroll flew away thanks to a perfect getaway while Afanasiev at the same time threw himself out of the title fight: he first jumped the start, then trying to stop the car he stalled, starting one lap later from the pitlane.

The fight for the first spot was soon settled with Carroll pushing hard in the first laps and pulling a good lead that was enough to resist a late charge by Rio Haryanto, who also posted the fastest lap of the race on lap 9. Because of this, all the attention switched to the title fight between Kevin Ceccon and Luca Filippi: the race started well for the SuperNova driver who passed from P7 to P5 at the start while Ceccon, that had to avoid Afanasiev, lost ground and closed first lap in P8. Then, as Filippi managed to pass Fabio Onidi and started putting pressure on Crestani, predicting who was going to wear the crown seemed very difficult especially considering that Ceccon was stuck behind Venturini and under attack from a charging Buttarelli.

Anyway, just a bit later Ceccon reacted and did what he had to in order to secure the title: on lap 7 he attacked Venturini and made a clear pass on the straight just before the San Donato entry, and doing so he grabbed two vital points. The development of the race, with Crestani fending off Filippi's attacks easily, sealed the title fight in Ceccon's favour, with the 18 year-old Italian following Romain Grosjean's footsteps becoming the second Auto GP Champion.

The race also gave DAMS the Teams title for the second year in a row, ahead of Campos Racing who took second thanks to an amazing Mugello weekend, in which the Spanish team collected an incredibile 53 points. The team owned by Adrian Campos ended the season tied on points with Lazarus, but the Italian team had one less win and so had to settle for third. In the Under 21 Standings Ceccon had already won the title in Valencia, but the Mugello Race, with his win in Race 1, gave Adrien Tambay the second spot, ahead of Buttarelli.

Concerning the Prize Money, it's worth to notice that the Mugello weekend awarded the last 100.000 euros, with Tambay taking the biggest prize (60.000 euros) thanks to a 30 points tally. 25.000 euros went to Luca Filippi, whilst Rio Haryanto won 15.000 euros.

Kevin Ceccon:

"Winning the title was an incredibile emotion, I think that I still have to realize what I did. After taking the lead in Oschersleben I dreamed about this moment, but living it is incredible because I had such strong opponents. Today the race was particularly tense, because I knew I had to keep an eye on Luca and Sergei. Before the race I asked the team to give infos just from the pit wall, and some very basical ones: my championship position, laps remaining, and where Filippi and Afanasiev were placed. So I knew everything about the situation, and at the start it wasn't looking too good. Then I managed to pass Venturini and Crestani kept Luca behind: winning by just three points makes the emotion even bigger, now I just want to celebrate".

Adam Carroll:

"It's a great win and it's what I needed at the end of the season. For me it's a great feeling because due to my long period without racing commitments my last time on the high podium step was in 2009. The race wasn't easy as it seemed, because Rio was pushing hard behind me, but I had a great car and so I could manage the gap without worrying too much. I have to say thanks to Adrian Campos for giving me this chance, I hope he will be happy after such a weekend".

Rio Haryanto:

"After winning in Valencia I get another podium, this shows that I feel really at ease with the Auto GP car, I love it and I love the kind of hard training it provides. Today it was really a tough race from a physical point of view, but I managed to push hard until the end of the race and we really had a great pace, enough to post the fastest lap of the race. Not catching Adam was a pity, but second is a great result".

Fabrizio Crestani:

"I had a bad start and both Rio and Onidi managed to pass me. Anyway, after yesterday's bad performance the team worked a lot in the night to give me a better car, and today I finally I had the right tool to race in Mugello as hard as I like. So I passed Fabio quite easily, and keeping Filippi behind wasn't too hard. I managed the gap, keeping it around the 1" mark, and I got a podium that is the best way to end the season".

Race 2

1 Adam CARROLL CAMPOS RACING 13laps in 20'58.731, avg 195.010 Km/h
2 Rio HARYANTO DAMS +4.777
3 Fabrizio CRESTANI LAZARUS +7.027
4 Luca FILIPPI SUPERNOVA +8.210
5 Fabio ONIDI LAZARUS +11.967
6 Adrien TAMBAY CAMPOS RACING +14.362
7 Kevin CECCON OMBRA RACING +17.903
8 Samuele BUTTARELLI TP FORMULA +18.310
9 Giovanni VENTURINI GRIFFITZ DURANGO +26.024
10 Pasquale DI SABATINO TP FORMULA +27.238
11 Francesco DRACONE OMBRA RACING +45.411
12 Michele LA ROSA OMBRA RACING +1'19.123
13 Sergei AFANASIEV DAMS +1 Laps
14 Giuseppe Cipriani GRIFFITZ DURANGO +12 Laps

Drivers Standings:

1. Ceccon 130; 2. Filippi 127; 3. Afansiev 117; 4. Tambay 114; 5. Onidi 99; 6. Crestani 92; 7. Haryanto 82; 8. Buttarelli 81; 9. Venturini 76; 10. Carroll 64.

Under 21 Standings:

1. Ceccon 222 (Champion); 2. Tambay 159; 3. Buttarelli 148; 4. Venturini 147; 5. Haryanto 143; 6. Mendez 71; 7. De Jong 59; 8. Korjus 18; 9. Bizzarri 10.

Teams Standings:

1. DAMS 238; 2. Campos Racing 190; 3. Lazarus 190; 4. Supernova 181; 5. Ombra 136; 6. TP Formula 113; 7. Griffitz Durango 78; 8. MP Motorsport 19; 9. Emmebi Motorsport 1.