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The insider

the worlds best young drivers fighting for a place in formula 1

round 4 Spain, 12-13 may 2012

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supplier to gp2/gp3gp3 heroesthe galleryvan der gardenigel melker

back on top!Van der Garde and Razia returnto winning ways in Spain

read more

Gd evans!new zealandertakes win atseason opener

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The 2010 GP2 Series championPastor Maldonado became thefth driver to win a Formula 1Grand Prix in 2012, the third GP2champion to do so, and the rstWilliams driver to take the topstep of the podium since 2004 ata thrilling Spanish Grand Prix.

The Venezuelan had claimed hisfrst F1 pole position on Saturday,when 2006 GP2 champion LewisHamilton was stripped o theposition and thrown to the backo the grid ater irregularities withhis McLarens uel levels.

Maldonado was passed byFernando Alonso on the run down tothe frst corner, but Williamsstrategyo stopping or tyres earlier thanthe two-time F1 champion workedperectly, Maldonado opening up a

cushion the Spaniard was neverable to reverse.

Maldonado duly swept to victoryahead o Alonso and Raikkonenwith 2011 GP2 champion RomainGrosjean ourth. Completing a goodday or GP2 graduates, the ormerGP2 Asia champion Kamui Kobayashiwas fth, 2005 GP2 champ Rosbergseventh, Hamilton eighth and 2009champion Nico Hlkenberg 10th.

But just 90 minutes ater thechequered ag, Maldonado turnedrom race hero to real hero as a freenguled his teams garage. Whilemembers o the Williams, Force Indiaand Caterham teams were tryingto extinguish the blaze, Maldonadohoisted his 12-year-old cousinMiguel, who had a broken leg, ontohis back and rushed him to saety.

Maldonado a real f1hero on a day of draMa

Gallery

razia closes gap with winrace report spain // race 1 winner: giedo Van der garde // race 2 winner: luiz razia

As the GP2 Series returnedto Europe for Round 4, therewere a new set of challengesas, like in F1, Pirelli broughthard and soft tyres to act asprime and option in Spain.The dierence in compounds

set up a unique set o variableswhich saw limited running inpractice on the prime and theimportance o timing and luckplay its hand over the use o theoption in qualiying.

Championship leader DavideValsecchi and Esteban Gutirrezboth suered with ill ortune asyellow ags hampered their besteorts, but James Calado goteverything right to secure hisfrst Feature race pole in GP2.

race 1With the majority o driversopting or the prime-primestrategy in the Feature race,Calado appeared to have a gripon the event rom the o. But,mistaking an early stoppingNathanal Berthon or FabioLeimer, with whom Calado wasbattling, his team brought himin early or his compulsory stop.Calado still made the end othe race, but it was at this point

that Caterham played theirstrategy masterstroke, bringingin Giedo van der Garde andchanging his rear tyres. TheDutchman emerged rom thepits in the lead, ahead o Caladoand despite his best eorts, theBritish driver couldnt fnd a waypast. Van der Garde took thevictory by 0.878sec rom Calado,with Steano Coletti turning inColonis frst podium o the yearater the team had fnally got ontop o its tyre wear issues.

With championship leaderValsecchi back in ourth,Gutirrez down in tenth and LuizRazia fnishing eighth to takereverse grid pole or the Sprint

Race, the result did wondersor Van der Garde and Caladoschampionship hopes.

race 2From pole position, Razia drove aaultless race on Sunday to takehis second victory o the year.

The race was decided at the startas Berthon held o a chargingValsecchi to settle the otherpodium positions, althoughCalado came close to deposingthe Italian in the fnal laps.

Valsecchi still leads the titlerace rom Razia, but Calado, theweekends top scorer with 30points, now sits third ahead oVan der Garde and Gutirrez.

morenews

Lotus, or ARTas the team usedto be known, is used to successin both the GP2 and GP3 Series,and the opening weekend ofthe European season was noexception. Saturday saw the blackand gold cars sweep onto thepodium in both the GP2 and GP3races, and Sunday morning beganin similar fashion as Conor Dalytook the GP3 win for Lotus. Theteam was set up for making it fourpodiums in four races and team

boss Fred Vasseur was naturallyseen heading for the GP2 podiumafter Sundays race too.

The problem was that LotussJames Calado nished fourth, notthird... and Freds journey hadbeen wasted. Calado and Lotusstill had much to celebrate, notonly was James the highest scorerin GP2s Spanish weekend, buthis Sunday result was his 55thconsecutive race nish, a recordstretching back three seasons.

racecard //p

riVertandings

Davide Valsecchi 129

Luiz Razia 104

James Calado 69

Giedo van der Garde 60

Esteban Gutirrez 59

Max Chilton 57

Fabio Leimer 41

Felipe Nasr 28

Tom Dillmann 27

Steano Coletti 26

Nathanal Berthon 23

Rio Haryanto 16

Dillmann dnidValscci a fou in

the blog //by the wter er

James was late to thepress conerence. We waited ora while, but in the end we had tostart without him; its not the frsttime, and it wont be the last. So Iintroduced Giedo, who turned tothe empty chair next to him andsaid loudly: Hello James, how areyou?First question in and Giedostarts answering, only or Jamesto sheepishly slink in. Hey!Giedolaughed. How are you doing?Have you been up to much?Its been a while!

click for the bloG latest

lotus and the art of success

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Lotus GP 128

Arden International 105

Carlin 73

Racing Engineering 64

Caterham Racing 60

Scuderia Coloni 38

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ck here forels profile

click here forfull iNterview

IGELMELKER

AN RACING TECHNOLOGY

wOuLdNTE HERE

wITHOuT...y ather. He hasported me not justncially but as a rienda dad. He has helped metionally, psychologically.

sometime fght, but Ik thats normal. We havegood periods and ourperiods, but hes alwaysn there or me.goes all the way backarting, where he wasmechanic and we wereays travelling together.

id a bit o kartingsel just or un, but hiso the sport is what got

nterested in it, too.es not involved inorsport. He owns housescompany buildingsrents them out, butcent years hes been

eloping an onlineing and poker website

ch we are working on.e has been a huge

ence on my lie, he madehe person I am today!

GALLERY//T v

A good weekends work or athanalBerthon with his frst GP2 podium place

Ocean acing Technologys victor Guerinlooks orward to his GP2 debut in pain

Fabio Crestani (venezuela GP Lazarus)takes reuge rom the panish sun

Johnny Ceccotto keeps his head up,despite ailing to score in pain

tphane ichelmi couldnt conert agood qualiying position into points

A cuderia Coloni mechanic puts thefnishing touches to teano Colettis car

Gp3pirelli

30POINTS SCOREdbY JAMES CALAdO

IN SPAIN

SPAIN //T TAT

Q&AGIEdO VAN

dER GARdECATERHAM RACINGGiedo, congratulations ona great win today. You hada good start and the pitstrategy worked, but howwas it or you in the car?Quite good! It hasnt been easyduring the year so far. I arrivedat a team which was up anddown last year, and they have

just one years experience, soit has been quite a struggle,but we have been workingat out the last few weeks andmonths, and it paid o today!

I had a very good start, andafter that I could do the pacefrom the front. I didnt expectthem to pit so early, and I stillhad good tyres when I decidedto pit one lap later, so I pushedlike hell. The pit entry wasquite tricky I nearly missedthe white line! But in the endit was all perfect: we changedthe two tyres, and I came outin front. After that, it was justmaintain the pace and controlthe tyres.

You changed the rears, mosto the others went or allour, was this pre-arranged,or a reaction to their stops?No, it was pre-arranged. Beforethe race we decided to doonly two: after last year I learntfrom my mistake, where I wasleading quite comfortably,we changed four tyres andCharles Pic changed two, andhe passed me after the pits. So

I said lets go for twoand see if it goes to theend of the race, and it did.

You said you had plenty olie in the tyres, was it all justdictated by their stops?It was actually. Its always hardto judge which lap to comein, but it was always plannedfor between lap 13 and lap18. They came in quite early,so we decided to come in onelap later because otherwiseyou can lose a place, you neverknow. And that lap was sogood, the key to the win today.

Ater that everyone waswatching your ront tyresto see how they lasted, howwere they or you?

There was a little understeer,but otherwise it was perfect:I could do the same lap timesto the end of the race. Actually,between lap 20 and lap 30, Ithink I would have been able togo quicker, but I knew I had tosave tyres for later. Thankfully,in the end it all worked out.

http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Nigel-Melker/http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Nigel-Melker/http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Nigel-Melker/http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2012/05_May/Barcelona-Feature-race-press-conference/http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2012/05_May/Barcelona-Feature-race-press-conference/http://gp2series.com/http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2012/05_May/Barcelona-Feature-race-press-conference/http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Nigel-Melker/

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gp2 gallery

The GP3 Series got its third

season underway in itstraditional launch venue of theCircuit de Catalunya on theoutskirts of Barcelona, and onceagain the opening weekendincluded much intrigue.

One of the strongestelds ever assembled in GP3history took to the track,amongst their numbers werereturning second-year drivers,championship winning rookiesand, for the rst time, threefemale racers.

Qualifying was a hugelyclose run thing, withsophomore Antonio Felix daCosta snatching P1 away fromConor Daly and Aaro Vainio, thethree drivers separated by lessthan a tenth of a second.

race 1

At the start of the race, DaCosta edged forward justbefore the lights went out. Hestopped and got going againat the actual race start, but hisfate had already been sealed a drive-through penalty.

Reacting to Da Costa morethan the lights, Daniel Abt wasalready up from P7 and intothe lead by the time most of hisrivals had dropped the clutch another drive-through was onits way. That left Mitch Evansin a commanding lead, aheadof Marlon Stockinger and AaroVainio. Patrick Neiderhausertook top rookie honours aheadof Matias Laine, Daly, Tio Ellinas,Robert Visoiu, David Fumanelliand Alex Brundle.

race 2

Visoiu was on pole for Sundaysreverse grid, and as theRomanian tried to keep Dalyat bay, the American kept hisfoot in as he bounced over thegrass, emerging in P2 as Ellinasew into the lead. But he, too,had jumped the start andtook a drive-through penalty.Daly then controlled the pace,streaking away from Visoiuto win by more than threeseconds, with Laine third.

GP3s female racers showedgenuine potential in theirrst weekend. Carmen Jordatook top honours with P20 onSaturday, Vicky Piria foughthard to take 16th on Sunday,while Alice Powell went from25th to nish 11th.

former gp3stars areon the rise

While GP2 graduates havebeen busy taking Formula 1by storm in 2012, the pinnacleof global motorsport hasalso seen its fair share of GP3graduates making an impact.

The 2011 champion ValtteriBottas (see next page) isthe reserve driver at theWilliamsF1 Team, and inBarcelona was once againcalled upon by the teamto conduct a crucial testprogramme in the weekendsrst practice session.

But he was not alone.The 2010 GP3 Series driverAlexander Rossi joined himon track as the reserve driver

for Caterham F1 in 2012. Hebecame the rst Americanto take part in an F1 sessionsince another GP2 graduateScott Speed in 2007.

aLeXaNDer rOSSI

evans gets oto a flying startrace repOrt SpaIN // race 1 wINNer: MItch evaNS // race 2 wINNer: cONOr DaLy

Kiwi Mih Evsdmied he ses-pee i Be

CirCUit DeCatalUnyaTHE STATS

0.090 secgapBetWEnthe top3 inQUalifying

preview

// MontE carlo // Monaco// 2426 May

Sf d Supe-sf (bew) mpuds f M

//davidE valSEcchi (catErhaM racinG)

2011 FeatUre race wINNer

//charlES Pic (BarWa addaX)

2011 SprINt race wINNer

2011 race weather //Sunny

2011 track teMp //46c

track LeNgth //3.340KMarNINg tyre

aNageMeNt IShe key tO gp2

rivers have already proved they havee amount of talent but experience

e management is still relatively new to The latest generation of Pirellis GP2s designed to help them learn as much

ssible about this vital skill. All driverse to reach Formula One, where knowingto do with the tyres, and when, can makefference between winning and losing.the first time this year, this is the case ins well, especially during the Feature race

one compulsory pit stop. In Barcelona,o van der Garde used a brilliant tyregy to get past the two drivers in front ofames Calado and Fabio Leimer. Both ha dd on the hard compound tyre and opted

ange all four wheels during their pit stopsh took place on the same lap) while Vanarde changed just the rear tyres.h only four mechanics allowed to workg a pit stop, a two-tyre change wills be quicker but the drivers then face a

harder job to manage the degradation on thetyres that do the whole race. Van der Garde

controlled the strategy to perfection, whileLeimer faced a drive-through penalty for anunsafe release. Its hard to accept for bothdriver and team, but GP2 is all about learningevery aspect of tyre and pit stop management.

Barcelona was particularly crucial for tyresas for the first time there was an entire stepbetween the two nominated compounds:hard and soft. This meant that drivers savedtheir sole set of soft tyres for qualifying anddid not run on them in practice, in order tokeep them in pristine condition. With only themedium GP2 tyre used in pre-season testing,qualifying was a step into the unknown.

Pirellis racing manager Mario Isolacommented: From the start, weve been veryimpressed by the way that th e GP2 drivershave adapted to our latest tyres and found theway to get the best out of them. Barcelonawas the most extreme nomination that wehave made so far, but as we hoped, the driversall saw it as an opportunity to use strategy tomove themselves up the order. This abilitywill definitely stand them in good steadfor the future. From a personal perspective,it is a pleasure to work with such a talentedand dedicated group of young racers.

arIO ISOLa //cnG ManaGEr, PrEll

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pirelligp2 gallery

Q+A: conor dAly

The rst win of your GP3 career, youmust be a happy man right now?Its really cool. I wanted it last season in Monzabecause I knew I had a chance. The Carlin teamhad worked really hard and I wanted to provethat I could run at the front, but unfortunatelywe couldnt. But ever since the end of that race,Ive been focused on doing the best I could.The Lotus GP guys have been fantastic, the waywe have worked together during the wintertesting has been awesome. I made a mistakeyesterday in Race 1 and didnt put ourselves

in a good position, but I was lucky enough toredeem myself today at the start. It feels so niceto have my rst podium and my rst win, and it

feels really good to be in this form heading intoMonaco. To win a championship you have toscore points as often as possible. I lost valuableones yesterday, though the points I gainedwere still vital. It wasnt the best I could havedone, unlike today!You said you made a mistake yesterdayin Race 1, what happened?I didnt have the best start procedure, I justmade a mistake. Fortunately today, I made agood start and I can see what I did dierently.Now hopefully, I can be more consistent.Yesterday I made a mistake on the rst lapalso which took us out of the top ve, butwe made up for it in Race 2.Would you have beaten Tio Ellinas if hehadnt received the jump start penalty?I think so. The car was really good. As soonas they told me Ellinas had a penalty, I knewthere was no need to push too hard. I sawwhat happened with Ellinas, it was exactlythe same as what happened with Felix daCosta yesterday. I had condence in the carand I believe we would have challengedTio had he not had the penalty.

On Michael Schumacher...Growing up, I watched what MichaelSchumacher was doing and thought, Thatswho I want to be like. I respect a lot of Indy

Car drivers in the US because they havebeen good enough to help me, but Michaelis someone I would love to emulate. Hisdominance has been awesome. I like howmuch he can extract from the car and howhe can build a team around him like he didat Ferrari. Thats what makes you successful,having a team moulded around you.

GP3to me:

Winning the GP3

Series last year

helped me to get the role

I now have as reserve and

test driver at the Williams

F1 Team. Im taking partin 15 race weekends

as a driver in Friday

practice, Im running

in numerous test days.

Without winning the

championship, which

was really tough,

I wouldnt be here.

my Hero...

Valtteri Bottas

DaNiel aBt aaro VaiNio CoNor DalY

On Lewis Hamilton...I am a big fan of his as I like his style ofdriving and how he approaches everything.I think he is one of the most talented

drivers racing right now, and I hope tobe racing against him in the near future. Icant name a particular favourite race of hisbut whenever there is some action on thetrack it always seems to involve Hamilton.Last year he got criticised for crashing withMassa a few times, but I like it when driversgive it everything to try and be at the front.

On Kimi Raikkonen...Of course being Finnish, I follow theFinnish drivers and it feels great to haveKimi back in F1. I like how he does things

dierently and also how he acts on thetrack. Hes amazing, hes the guy I followand its great for Finnish motorsport tohave him back. Driving with Lotus GP inGP3 and Kimi at Lotus in F1 there is alsothat connection. Heikki is also doing agreat job in Catherham but, for me, Kimihas always been the one to watch on TV.