GP2 Silverstone race spoilers (both races)

[FourWheelDrift]

Hamilton does it again, 2nd on the grid for yesterdays long pit stop race, takes the lead after Copse corner and wins the race by 5 seconds.

Starts this mornings sprint race from 8th on the grid (reversed top 8 grid from the result in race 1) looks like the only one capable of overtaking so does exactly that, brilliant opportunist moves and carefully planned overtakes. Like seeing the 2 cars in front slow each other slightly out of Copse Corner making it three wide into Becketts holding the line and taking 2 cars in one go! He also seems to be the only driver who thinks about where to overtake and set it up, many corners in advance, even going slower in some to get an advantage later on. Takes the lead after scaring the other driver into submission by making a move through Bridge corner, then coming alongside him at Brooklands to finish the pass and then disappears off into the distance to win by 10 seconds. Remembering to put in the fastest lap as well to get more points.

Everyone prasied Nico Rosberg last year for doing the believed impossible in winning both races once, Hamilton has doen it twice already this year and their not even half way though the season.!

Juan Pablo Montoya must be the most worried person in Formula One, especially if he should notice a race seat in the garage with the initial LH on them

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Sunday 11th June 10:34

[Muff Driver]

Lewis should be in F1 next year.

I would tip hime to be World Champion before 2010 is out.

[FourWheelDrift]

Amended race rsults for race 2 Sunday am - Portiero loses 2nd place. Hamilton & Carroll make it a British 1-2.

Crash.net said:

The stewards' red pen continued to work overtime at Silverstone as, following Durango's exclusion even before the start of race two, Campos Racing's Felix Porteiro was stripped of his second place in Sunday's sprint event.

The Spaniard had started the race from pole and resisted the irresistible Lewis Hamilton for two laps before succumbing and settling for runners-up spot, but then lost Campos' highest-ever GP2 result when the scrutineers found an anomaly with his steering rack.

With a precedent set at the Hungaroring last season, when ART pairing Alex Premat and Nico Rosberg had their qualifying times deleted for a similarly incorrectly positioned rack, the Silverstone stewards had no option but to throw the young Spaniard out of the result, even though there was much deliberation over the wording of the regulations.

The outcome of the amendment is that the British crowd can head home knowing that, in GP2 at least, there was home success, with Adam Carroll moving up to complete a UK 1-2 behind Hamilton, with Clivio Piccione being elevated to the bottom step of the podium, even though he missed out on the champagne celebration at the time.

1. Lewis Hamilton ART 37mins 27.225s 23 laps
2. Adam Carroll Racing Engineering +10.040s
3. Clivio Piccione DPR Direxiv +11.025s
4. Giorgio Pantano FMS +11.896s
5. Nelson Piquet Jr Piquet +12.106s
6. Timo Glock iSport +15.133s
7. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova +19.572s
8. Ernesto Viso iSport +21.268s
9. Luca Fillipi BCN +22.580s
10. Franck Perera DAMS +22.888s
11. Mike Conway DPR Direxiv +23.778s
12. Alexandre Negrao Piquet +24.885s
13. Javier Villa Racing Engineering +29.711s
14. Jose Maria Lopez Super Nova +31.982
15. Gianmaria Bruni Trident +36.412s
16. Jason Tahinci FMS +54.863

Rtd Hiroki Yoshimoto BCN 21 laps completed
Rtd Adrian Valles Campos 13 laps completed
Rtd Neel Jani Arden 5 laps completed
Rtd Michael Ammermuller Arden 5 laps completed
Rtd Alexandre Premat ART 2 laps completed
Rtd Andreas Zuber Trident 0 laps completed

[FourWheelDrift]

Hamilton in for Montoya next year?

GP.com said:

The word in the paddock at Silverstone is that Juan Pablo Montoya has been told by McLaren that his services will not be required in 2007. With Kimi Raikkonen off to Ferrari (yet to be confirmed) and Fernando Alonso moving to McLaren this opens the way from the Woking team to hire F1 new boy Lewis Hamilton, who is dominating GP2 is impressive fashion this year, despite being in his rookie year of the series. Hamilton won two stylish victories at Silverstone over the weekend and now leads the series by 22 points from Nelson Piquet Jr.

Montoya's future in F1 is now in some doubt as the only real options available to him are Red Bull Racing and Toyota. Red Bull does not seem to be very interested as David Coulthard is doing fine and Toyota might take him on in place of Jarno Trulli. At the moment Trulli is holding out for more money but with Montoya on the market he will probably compromise on the cash to secure the seat.

If Red Bull decides against hiring Montoya - and that is quite likely given that Tonio Liuzzi looks a good bet and the team seems keen to keep Coulthard - then Montoya may not have a future in F1 in a team that would be of any interest to him. The logical move in that situation would be to head back to the United States where he won the CART title in 1999 with Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Ganassi is now a major player in the Indy Racing League and is currently running a pair of Target-sponsored Dallaras for Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon.

Good, McLaren won't have to spend so much next year on Montoya's salary or the catering.

[SamHH]

If Hamilton does get a McLaren seat I suppose Gary Paffett will get sidelined in a similar way to Anthony Davidson.

[rubystone]

SamHH said:

If Hamilton does get a McLaren seat I suppose Gary Paffett will get sidelined in a similar way to Anthony Davidson.

....well. insofar as he'll have to make do with a DTM drive yes, I suppose you're correct, but believe me, Hamilton is the real deal - has shown consistency and talent in every class he's ever raced in, and for me, the best thing about his move at Becketts was his predicting what the others would do than the move itself - that's a mark of a real champion - I can't ever recall Button doing the same thing...

Ant Davidson's performances in the Honda this year tell us something about the poor quality of the car - he inevitably topped the Friday times last year and the year before and yet this year, can't get near them.

Watch out for Kubica too - great performances from him this Friday - the BMW looked pacey throughout both sessions on Friday and showed this form on Sunday too.

[SamHH]

I've seen very little of Hamilton's racing but everyone seems to be raving about him. Thing is, I'm not sure why McLaren would want to take him on instead of keeping Montoya on (presuming the Raikkonen-Ferrari deal is done). Hamilton may well be a fantastic driver, but they will already have a top-quality championship winning driver in Alonso. I reckon for their second driver they need someone who can consistently score points and maybe take a win should Alonso have a bad day, something that Montoya has proved himself capable of doing. Can Hamilton really offer them anything they don't already have?

[FourWheelDrift]

SamHH said:

Can Hamilton really offer them anything they don't already have?

Perhaps you need to see him race then that will answer your question.

[SamHH]

FourWheelDrift said:

SamHH said:

Can Hamilton really offer them anything they don't already have?

Perhaps you need to see him race then that will answer your question.

I'm not questioning that he's quick and canny, but even if he's a match for Alonso, which is by no means a certainty, is that what McLaren need? Is having two super-duper drivers in a team any better than having one? Ferrari and Renault have both been successful recently with one top-notch driver and one good-but-not-fantastic driver. My theory is that having Alonso next year means that McLaren don't need anyone better than Montoya.

[killer2005]

FourWheelDrift said:

SamHH said:

Can Hamilton really offer them anything they don't already have?

Perhaps you need to see him race then that will answer your question.

I hadn't seen many of his races until today, but in the 2nd GP2 race he was excellent. I see a good future for him

[Ollie Tebbutt]

Im good mates with Lewis, especially his brother. He lives more or less next door to me. Great guy.

[rubystone]

SamHH said:

I reckon for their second driver they need someone who can consistently score points and maybe take a win should Alonso have a bad day, something that Montoya has proved himself capable of doing. Can Hamilton really offer them anything they don't already have?

Montoya, consistent?....look at how well he backed up Kimi's championship challenge last year....Renault have proven with Fisichella that the only team able to employ a 2nd driver to back up their number 1 driver are Ferrari...and with Massa they're going a long way to ruin that approach too.

It's a no-brainer - Hamilton in as number 2 driver, US$10m p.a. in the bank...

Incidentally, Saturday's edition of the Red Bulletin was a cracker - they did a piece on Williams and how the team is so rich that FW's had to install some new safes to keep the cash in - he's decided to name them "Jenson" "Narain" "Bridgestone" and "BMW"

[Gemm]

Yes, great driving by Lewis. Here's a pic I took.... This says it all.

[FourWheelDrift]

Lewis's 3 abreast overtaking from 4th to 2nd from the second GP2 race at Silverstone.

2 videos

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zIp3hrSC48

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEQswNOxzfw

[stockhatcher]

interesting,

ther ehasn't been this much excitement about a british driver coming up through the ranks since Colin Mcrae. I wonder what happened to him?

[Jungles]

stockhatcher said:

interesting,

ther ehasn't been this much excitement about a british driver coming up through the ranks since Colin Mcrae. I wonder what happened to him?

Colin McRae? He was pretty much dumped since 2004 from the WRC, and has been spending his time doing one-off events. He drove for Nissan in the Paris-to-Dakar rallies, even raced in the Le Mans 24 hour race, and the Porsche Carrera Supercup. He did make a brief return to WRC in the 2005 season, driving for Skoda (a dubiously uncompetitive team), where he netted 7th in Wales Rally GB, and almost got 2nd in Australia (eventually retiring due to a botched clutch change).

As for other British drivers rising fast through the ranks, Kris Meeke and Guy Wilkes are making a bang in the Junior World Rally Championship. Wilkes was twice runner-up (2004 and 2005), and Meeke was third (2005).

Gary Paffett was excellent in DTM, which is tough competition, and he has the #3 seat in the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team this year.

Hamilton gets a lot of press, because he competes in GP2. Aside from his consistently strong driving performance, dominating the competition in an F1 feeder series is bound to attract attention.

Muff Driver said:

Lewis should be in F1 next year.

Let's see:

2004 FIA F3000 champion: Vitantonio Liuzzi (now in STR #1)
2004 FIA F3000 3rd: Robert Doornbos (now in RedBull #3)
2005 GP2 champion: Nico Rosberg (now in Williams #2)
2005 GP2 2nd: Heikki Kovalainen (now in Renault #3)
2005 GP2 3rd: Scott Speed (now in STR #2)

If he keeps up his current performance, looks like an F1 seat is guaranteed.

Edited by Jungles on Tuesday 13th June 13:28