Adam Carroll will start on pole in tomorrow’s GP2 sprint race after his return to the series saw him squander an impressive qualification performance in the feature race to finish eighth.
The race was won by Giorgio Pantano, who was unruffled throughout the race and coped serenely with a late safety car period that could have caused him problems. Romain Grosjean was tracked doggedly by Andi Zuber for much of the race but refused to give him an opportunity to attack, with the pair finishing second and third.
Carroll, who was called up unexpectedly by Fisichella Motor Sport for the races in Turkey and Monaco, had impressed during qualifying to set the third-fastest time.
But he was left at the start of the race and was forced to claw his way back through the field, rising as high as seventh before suddenly losing a place in the closing stages.
His eighth place finish will put him on the pole for the feature race, which is run using a reverse grid based on the sprint results.
A place behind in ninth was Mike Conway of Trident, who had started 17th after a penalty in qualifying. Ben Hanley, racing for Campos, was a lap down in 17th.
Conway said: “I was not perfect at the start, but I was able to get my on-grid position back by mastering the troubles happened at the first corner. My car proved to be really consistent by keeping the same pace on both new and old rubber.
“I’m sorry to have missed 8th place, that would’ve brought us one point and, more important, the pole position on Race 2. I’m satisfied with my result though, especially considering the low starting position.
“I think our goal will be in discovering the reason of the lack of performance in qualifying, since having a good starting position is vital in order to break at the top.”
We’ll add comments from Carroll and Hanley if and when we get them.
How they finished
- 1. Giorgio Pantano – Racing Engineering
- 2. Romain Grosjean – ART Grand Prix
- 3. Andi Zuber – Piquet Sports
- 4. Karun Chandhok – iSport International
- 5. Vitaly Petrov – Campos Team
- 6. Sebastien Buemi – Trust Team Arden
- 7. Javier Villa – Racing Engineering
- 8. Adam Carroll – FMS International
- 9. Mike Conway – Trident Racing
- 10. Adrian Valles – BCN Competicion
- 11. Ho-Pin Tung – Trident Racing
- 12. Roldan Rodriguez – FMS International
- 13. Diego Nunes – DPR
- 14. Yelma Buurman – Trust Team Arden
- 15. Bruno Senna – iSport International
- 16. Luca Filippi – ART Grand Prix
- 17. Ben Hanley – Campos Team
- 18. Alberto Valerio – Durango
- 19. Andy Soucek – Super Nova Racing
- DNF Jerome D’ambrosio – Dams
- DNF Pastor Maldonado – Piquet Sports
- DNF Milos Pavlovic – BCN Competicion
- DNF Giacomo Ricci – DPR
- DNF Alvaro Parente – Super Nova Racing
- DNF Kamui Kobayashi – Dams