2010 Spa-Francorchamps GP2 Series round
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The 2010 Belgian GP2 round is a GP2 Series motor race to be held on August 28 and 29, 2010 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Spa in Belgium. It will be the eighth round of the 2010 GP2 Season and the seventh round of the 2010 GP3 Season. The race will be used to support the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix. In GP3, Robert Wickens cut championship leader Esteban Gutiérrez's (who did not score a point over the weekend) lead by winning race 1 in torrential conditions, following a tyre gamble. Another clever tyre gamble earned Adrien Tambay a first victory in race 2.
GP2 Report
Michael Herck originally scored pole, but the former Belgian was one of a dozen drivers to be penalised after qualifying for going too fast under yellows. Home driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio got pole instead, ahead of championship leader Pastor Maldonado.
Feature Race
Pastor Maldonado took another feature race victory at Spa-Francorchamps to increase his winning record in the series, although he only just managed to hang on under heavy pressure from Alvaro Parente at the end of the race. The Rapax driver was struggling with his car and almost certainly would not have held off Coloni stand-in Parente for another lap. Parente, who led most of the race before making a late stop, closed rapidly on the series leader during the final lap, but was just too far back to make a move at the Bus Stop. Another stand-in driver, Romain Grosjean (subbing for injured Ho-Pin Tung at DAMS), took third place after fellow podium contenders Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Sergio Pérez ran into trouble. D'Ambrosio, who started on pole but lost the lead to Maldonado when both pitted together, eventually retired. Pérez (Addax) took third on the first lap and kept the spot after the stops, but lost that when he had to serve a drive-through for pitlane speeding. A first-lap accident involving Sam Bird (ART) and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) caused a safety car interruption, but the race ran green from the restart on lap four. Dani Clos was later diagnosed with a back injury after the race, so missed the Sprin Race. Rodolfo González got 8th, so took sprint race pole, ahead of Giedo van der Garde, who did very well in getting 9th after starting 23rd.
Sprint Race
Mexico's Sergio Pérez made up for the disappointment in the feature race by taking victory in the reverse-grid GP2 race at Spa-Francorchamps. After starting second, the Addax driver made light work of pole man Rodolfo González (Arden), running much quicker through Eau Rouge and passing him at Les Combes on the first lap. Pérez never relinquished the lead thereafter. The race was punctuated by three safety cars for accidents – including crashes by Christian Vietoris, Charles Pic and Jules Bianchi – and debris on the track. González later dropped behind Pérez's team-mate Giedo van der Garde and feature race runner up Alvaro Parente (Scuderia Coloni). Championship leader Pastor Maldonado retired at Les Combes on the first lap, so Pérez's win keeps his mathematical chance of closing up the Venezuelan's big points lead alive.
External links
- http://gp2series.com/Maldonado-hangs-on-for-dramatic.html
- http://gp2series.com/Perez-powers-to-fourth-victory.html
| Previous round: 2010 Hungarian GP2 round |
GP2 Series 2010 season |
Next round: 2010 Italian GP2 round |
| Previous round: 2009 Belgian GP2 round |
Belgian GP2 round | Next round: 2011 Belgian GP2 round |
| Previous round: 2010 German GP3 round |
GP3 Series 2010 season |
Next round: 2010 Belgian GP3 round |
| Previous round: none |
Belgian GP3 round | Next round: 2011 Belgian GP3 round |