30/07/2006
NEWS STORY
 |
Timo Glock has taken an incredible last lap victory at his home event in the Sunday GP2 series race here at Hockenheim from José María López. Lewis Hamilton took his second podium of the weekend in third place, as his main rival Nelson Piquet Jr again failed to finish.
At the start, Clivio Piccione led the field away, with José, and Giorgio Pantano tucked in behind him. At the hairpin, José tucked up the inside of the Monegasque driver, and as Clivio was forced to give him room to pass he ran wide onto the apron. Giorgio blasted past Clivio, and the Monegasque tagged Giorgio and spun out. All this left José leading from Giorgio and a fast-starting Timo who was up to third from sixth. The German was in fighting mood after missing out on the chance of a win yesterday through a speeding penalty, and he made quick work of Giorgio, blasting through at the hairpin and holding on in a battle of chicken with the Italian on the run down to the next corner.
José was now leading by a second, and over the following laps would pull out a further second and a half to lead Timo at ease. Further back, Lewis was also on a mission. Having started seventh, he quickly dispatched Adam Carroll, Ernesto Viso and Giorgio, although the Italian really made him fight.
Meanwhile, Alex Prémat and Hiroki Yoshimoto were out of the race, the Frenchman having made a number of robust moves on the Japanese which failed to come off. Afterwards Alex would be handed a ten-place grid penalty for the next race for the incident, and Hiroki was reprimanded for his "ungentlemanly" gestures of discontent towards his rival.
Up at the front Timo was starting to cut into José's lead by a few tenths each lap. The gap started to fall, little by little, and as they went into the final lap of the race they were separated by just 0.9 seconds. José made the slightest of mistakes at turn one however, and Timo saw his chance. On the run up to turn two José had to defend his line, and just as he had done with Giorgio on Saturday, Timo stuck to his guns and breezed by on the normal line.
Timo crossed the line 1.3 seconds ahead of José with Lewis a distant third. Ernesto had caught and passed Giorgio to finish fourth with the Italian fifth and Gimmi Bruni, winner of race one, sixth. José's obvious disappointment was tempered slightly with the knowledge he had set the fastest lap of the race, but in the end the ultimate glory fell to the local hero, Timo.
What about the championship? Lewis now leads on 82 points, with Nelson back on 56 in second place. Alex remains third on 49, but Timo's awesome run of recent success sees him in fourth on 40 points, well in the hunt for third and second position. In the team's championship ART Grand Prix now has 131 points, and iSport International have leapfrogged Piquet Sports to go second on 75. Piquet Sports are now third on 64, with Arden International fourth on 50.
1st Timo Glock – iSport International: I tried to do it yesterday but I didn't want to believe it until I actually crossed the line today. I woke up this morning and said to myself that today I was going to win, to pay the team back for my mistake in race one.
2nd Jose Maria Lopez – Super Nova International: I don't feel right. I should be happy because after quali nobody would have bet on me fighting for the win. But today I was hoping to win. Timo was very motivated, and its just such a shame for the team.
3rd Lewis Hamilton – ART Grand Prix: For me it couldn't get much better. Considering our qualifying we've had a great weekend. The team did a fantastic job as usual. It was a bit unfortunate for Nelson, but that's the way it goes.