05/08/2006
NEWS STORY
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Nelson Piquet Jr utterly dominated this afternoon's GP2 series race at the Hungaroring to take a well deserved win from Timo Glock and Giorgio Pantano. The Brazilian led from pole position and saw P1 next to his name for every one of the 42 laps of today's contest, finally crossing the line more than half a minute in front of Timo. By also taking the point for fastest lap, Nelson cut the championship gap to Lewis Hamilton in half as the Briton's nightmare weekend continued with a failure to score a point despite a gutsy drive from the back of the grid.
Race Report: At the start Nelson tore off from pole position as second placed Jose Maria Lopez bogged down and was enveloped by the rest of the grid. Into Turn 1 Michael Ammermüller held second, but with José in determined mood to get back his lost positions, he stuck to his guns and the pair touched, pitching the German into a spin and out of the race. The resulting contact left José seventh, while Nelson started pulling away from his rivals, led by Adam Carroll in second and Gimmi Bruni third. Giorgio sat fourth with Xandi Negrao on his tail and Ernesto Viso sixth in front of José and the eighth placed Timo.
Lewis meanwhile, starting from the back of the grid after spinning out in qualifying, was making great progress, up to 18th by the end of the first lap. Next time round however he was in for his compulsory stop, aiming to get out in clean air and set a brace of fast laps to pull him up the order. His plan came undone however as he was handed a drive thru penalty for speeding in the pitlane. He would spend the rest of the race fighting through the order, taking scalp after scalp as he searched for some salvation from his weekend, eventually finishing 10th, just out of the points.
Nelson meanwhile was pulling out more than a second a lap from his rivals. When all of their pitstops played out, Timo's iSport team had done the business once again, pulling him in early, effecting his tyre change with military precision and allowing him out in clean air. The German put in quick lap after quick lap, and as those in front of him came in for their stops, they each emerged with the iSport car in front of them. Timo now sat second, with Gimmi third and Giorgio fourth. With a 40 second lead Nelson then took his stop and emerged with his lead intact.
And that was that. Other than Gimmi dropping out with broken suspension sustained in the busy first lap, the order stayed the same, with Nelson crossing the line with a 30 second advantage over Timo, and Giorgio looming large in the German's mirrors. Timo's team-mate Ernesto finished fourth with Negrao a brilliant fifth. Sixth went to Alex Prémat after a measured race from the Frenchman as Adam took sixth after a long pitstop with José on his tail for eighth and Sunday pole. Nelson took the point for fastest lap and punched the sky, being welcomed back into parc ferme to receive the plaudits of his team and his famous father.
1st Nelson Piquet Jr – Piquet Sports: I don't know what to say really. Everything worked perfectly. That's how every driver wants to do a weekend, and that's how I wish to finish the championship, to drive like that every time.
2nd Timo Glock – iSport International: I tried to push but my engineer told me the times Nelson was doing, and I couldn't do the pace. It's good in the championship maybe we can get third position in the standings from the weekend.
3rd Giorgio Pantano – P.O. FMS International: You need to make a very good start here because otherwise it's very difficult to overtake. If you make a good start there is a chance to finish on the podium for sure also tomorrow. But we have to see.