GP2 Half-term Report
12/07/2005
Heikki Kovalainen has a decisive lead at the halfway point of the inaugural GP2 series, but he has been made to work for it, with six other drivers all spraying the victory champagne, which should come as no surprise.
The racing community was licking its collective lips when the Formula One support series launched in January and listed the sons of three former World Champions among its entries.
Nelson Piquet, Keke Rosberg and Niki Lauda won seven titles between them from 1975 to 1987 and their offspring - Nelson Jr, Nico and Mathias were all determined to live up to the hype that surrounded them.
Motorsport however, almost never runs to the script -and it has been Renault test driver Kovalainen who has established himself as the man to beat in this popular and competitive series.
Launched in January as a successor to the flagging International Formula 3000 Championship, the series brought together a group of motorsport heavyweights determined not to let GP2 go the same way.
Dallara build the carbon-fibre chassis, Bridgestone supply the Formula One-style grooved tyres, and Renault make the 600bph engine that is both powerful and driveable.
The season started with a bang. Kovalainen won the opening race for Arden International - the champion Formula 3000 team of the past two years, from fellow Renault Formula One backed driver Jose Maria Lopez right behind him.
Kovalainen has never lost his lead, which now stands at 20 points, since Imola and he has added to his tally with wins at the Nurburging and Magny-Cours, and consistent scoring everywhere else.
"I'm very happy to be winning races quite regularly at the moment," says the Finn. "I'm in a good team with Arden and that's a big advantage, because its really difficult to consistently set up the car for tracks that are so different to each other."
"The GP2 is so easy to race. The guys at Dallara have been very clever with how they designed the aerodynamics because you don't lose the grip when you follow another car through a corner as much as in other cars, and the tyres have the right amount of grip."
Rosberg is Heikki's closest challenger, but he admits he will be hard to beat, even with the support of ART Racing; run by Nicolas Todt -son of Ferrari Formula One boss Jean.
The 20-year-old German had a slow start to the year, but catapulted into contention with back to-back wins at Magny-Cours and Silverstone.
It has been a different story for his fellow world champion sons. Brazilian Piquet has been brilliantly quick on his day, especially in qualifying, but needs to iron out his ragged edge, while Austrian Lauda is taking time to get used to the series.
Adam Carroll, who is now fourth, won the Imola sprint race and at Monaco where he resisted the pressure to hold off ex-Minardi Formula One driver Gianmaria Bruni.
Things went wrong at Silverstone when he failed to score a point after spinning off late in the first race and finishing out of the points a day later.
"Monaco was very good," says the British driver. " You don't get to win there very often. I know Heikki had a wheelnut problem but I still think we would have been only separated by tenths there."
"Silverstone was really bad with losing the points so late in the race, but taking eighth after starting at the back was fun. There's still a long way to go, so I just have to push hard and try to beat him every time we go out."
Bruni himself won at Barcelona but the Italian has had bad luck along the way too, including a certain double win that went astray at the Nurburging, courtesy of a balance problem and a gearbox failure.
DAMS driver Lopez has been a consistent front-runner, as has ISport's American driver Scott Speed, who is third in the points and Racing Engineering's Neel Jani.
Durango driver Clivio Piccione took advantage of the top eight in race one being reversed on the grid on the Sunday grid for a fortunate win in Germany, and DPR's Olivier Pla did the same at Silverstone.
Frenchmen Alex Premat and Nicolas Lapierre should figure further towards the front in the second half of the season as they slowly find their feet.
The rest will be looking to take points whenever possible but do not look like toppling Kovalainen from the top spot.
(© Collings, 12 07 05)
Source: GP2 Series