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Written by:
RACER Staff
http://www.racer.com
06/22/2008 - 05:51 AM
Nevers, France
Buemi is now third in the championship behind Pantano and Senna. (LAT Photo) ยป More Photos
Sébastien Buemi has taken a dramatic win in damp conditions at the Circuit Magny-Cours in France. After starting 21st on slick tires, he ignored the chaos all around to him to record victory ahead of teammate Yelmer Buurman and Luca Filippi.
Rain fell steadily on the French circuit overnight but stopped just prior to the start, handing engineers all along the pitlane a nightmarish decision to make: do you play it safe and run wets, or throw the dice and gamble on slicks? The eventual podium provided an answer, albeit too late for the rest of the grid: the gamble paid off handsomely for all three drivers by the end of the race.
Polesitter Mike Conway led the grid away when the lights went out, with Jerome D'Ambrosio and Vitaly Petrov making strong starts to slot in behind him as the slick shod drivers just tried to hold on in the greasy conditions. The Belgian lost his advantage shortly after when he ran wide and came together with front row starter Karun Chandhok, and a stream of cars flowed by the pair and off after the leaders.
There were battles all around the circuit as the drivers pushed the limits of adhesion to make up places, but further back it was becoming clear that a drier line was emerging and a change of tyres was on the cards for most of the field: Buurman was the best placed of the slick shod drivers, and as his rivals dribbled into the pits he steadily rose up the timesheets until he was in P1.
The tricky conditions caught out many drivers: Romain Grosjean retired in the gravel trap just after changing to slicks, with most of the field hitting someone as they struggled to control their cars, including a big impact at the hairpin between Giorgio Pantano and Petrov which put the series leader out of the race shortly after. Meanwhile Buemi was pushing hard to get on terms with his teammate, finally catching and overtaking him on lap 21 after the pair ran wheel to wheel for half a lap until the hairpin.
Further back and Filippi was on a charge too, albeit with more traffic ahead of him: mechanical gremlins eventually put paid to the challenges thrown out by Alvaro Parente and Bruno Senna, handing an overdue podium to the Italian to kick start
Buemi sprayed the champagne with his teammate and Filippi in celebration of his win, but he had something else to celebrate too: the win pushed the Swiss driver up to third place in the championship on 20 points, behind Pantano on 35 and Senna on 28.
GP2 Series – Magny-Cours race 2 results:
1) Sebastien Buemi, Trust Team Arden, 43:08.504
2) Yelmer Buurman, Trust Team Arden, + 6.639
3) Luca Filippi, ART Grand Prix, + 23.953
4) Lucas Di Grassi, Barwa Campos Team, + 24.479
5) Bruno Senna, iSport International, + 29.439
6) Mike Conway, Trident Racing, + 35.924
7) Pastor Maldonado, Piquet Sports, + 38.074
8) Andreas Zuber, Piquet Sports, + 43.060
9) Kamui Kobayashi, DAMS, + 45.558
10) Javier Villa, Racing Engineering, + 46.756
11) Marko Asmer, FMS International, + 52.901
12) Adrian Valles, BCN Competicion, + 1 lap
13) Carlos Iaconelli, BCN Competicion, + 1 lap
14) Ho-Pin Tung, Trident Racing, + 2 laps
15) Michael Herck, DPR, + 2 laps
16) Roldan Rodriguez, FMS International, + 2 laps
17) Alberto Valério, Durango, + 2 laps
18) Vitaly Petrov, Barwa Campos Team, + 3 laps
Retirements:
Alvaro Parente, Super Nova Racing, 24
Benjamin Hanley, Durango, 24
Diego Nunes, DPR, 21
Giorgio Pantano, Racing Engineering, 14
Karun Chandhok, iSport International, 13
Romain Grosjean, ART Grand Prix, 6
Andy Soucek, Super Nova Racing, 2
Jerome D'Ambrosio, DAMS, 2
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