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The insider

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

round 6 Valencia, 22-24 June 2012

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supplier to gp2/gp3gp3 heroesgutierrezthe blograzia

last laplegendRazia takes title fight toValsecchi in Valencia

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birthday boy:evans leadsthe way in gp3series standings

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It seems there is something aboutthis circuit that suits you!Yes, its denitely a track that I like,and also its a special result or theteam and me! And also or manyother aspects, because we have beenhaving a difcult start to the season,ups and downs, mistakes rom myside, mistakes rom the team. Withthis result, we have to use this goodenergy and good eeling to goorward in the next ew races.This is a pretty strong result: whatdoes it mean to you and the team?Its true: I tried not to think too mucho the result, I tried to orget aboutthe championship, because in theend it is the sum o every singlerace, so I tried to enjoy the raceand overtake as many as I could.Sometimes you have to risk a bittoo much to take a win, so I triedto do my best, and nally I gota good result!

You had a lot of battlesthroughout the race...Yeah, rom the beginning to theend, and especially at the beginning

when we were having troubles withthe tyres, because they were usedrom yesterday and the rear tyreswere not working a lot, so to getto the ront they were difcult tomanage! So the strategy playedquite a big role in this race, becauseater the pits I had new tyres,and these helped me a lot to goorward and to gain more positions,especially in the last ew laps.

Mixed results for your team, howis the mood back in the truck?

Thats true. At some point theyrehappy but on the other side they aresorry or James. He did a antasticrace rom the beginning, andgenerally I think he deserved the winbecause he was leading and whathappened was not in his hands.

Q+A: estebAn gutirrez

History was made at the 2012Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prixas for the rst time, a podiumwas comprised exclusively ofGP2 graduates.

Lewis Hamilton became theseventh dierent winner in the rstseven races o the 2012 season atthe Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, exactlyve years ater he recorded his rstever F1 win at the very same track.

The 2006 GP2 Series championwas joined on the podium by 2011

champion Romain Grosjean insecond place, and the 2010GP2 Series runner-up Sergio Prez,who nished in third.

Two weeks later in Valencia,many pundits had expectedGrosjean to take his maiden F1victory, but an alternator issue sawhim retire while locked in a battleor the lead with two-time F1world champion Sebastian Vettel.

Hamiltons race ended ater acollision with 2010 GP2 champion

Pastor Maldonado. The Venezuelanwas handed a penalty ater the raceor his part in causing the contact,which promoted another ormerGP2 driver, the 2008 runner-upBruno Senna into tenth place andthe nal point-scoring position.

The 2009 GP2 champion NicoHlkenberg had a superb racethough, taking th place justahead o 2005 GP2 championNico Rosberg. Sergio Prez alsoscored points in ninth place.

gP2 HistOrY On MOntreAL PODiuM

Gallery

rAziA sHines As CALADO is DenieDvALenCiA // feAture rACe winner: estebAn gutierrez // sPrint rACe winner: Luiz rAziA

Since the GP2 Series rstvisited Valencia in 2006, it hasalways made itself at homein the sunny Spanish seasidecity, and 2012 was to proveno exception. The blisteringheat of the Spanish summerwas replicated with somescorching action on track.James Calado was the man withthe initial advantage, tearing topole position rom Felipe Nasr.Giedo van der Garde and MaxChilton lined up behind themater both Davide Valsecchi andEsteban Gutirrez were handedpenalties which saw them dropto the third row o the grid.

feAture rACeAt the race start, Calado gotaway perectly and rom thatpoint looked unstoppable.He pulled out a 15-secondgap and as his rivals came inor the compulsory stops, theEnglishman looked to havethings sewn up. But thenthe saety car was deployedor debris on track and all oCalados hard work was undone.His lead was erased and he wasthe only driver in the eld whohad yet to make his stop.

Each time the restart wasattempted, another crashensued, leaving the lap counterin the bin and a countdownclock in its place. Ater threesaety cars, the race nally gotgoing again, Calado pittedand a battle began or the win.Ultimately, Luiz Razia, who hadstarted 11th and was nursing adamaged ront wing, could nothold Gutirrez back, and theMexican scored his rst Featurerace win. Marcus Ericsson wasa abulous second with Raziathird. Calado, incredibly, wouldbe classied eighth and took thereverse grid pole.

sPrint rACeSo Calado ound himsel backat the ront, and again staringat the back o a saety car!With Calados tyres suering,Rio Haryanto ramped up thepressure, beore making amistake and taking himsel outo the running. Calado and FabioLeimer diced or the lead in thenal laps, but ailed to notice theapproaching Arden o Razia. Onthe last lap, Leimer and Caladowent side by side into Turn 17,but the Brazilian ew around theoutside or an incredible victory,which narrowed the gap behindValsecchi to just one point.

morenews

rACeCArD //v

rivertAnDings

Davide Valsecchi 141

Luiz Razia 140

James Calado 95

Max Chilton 93

Giedo van der Garde 89

Esteban Gutirrez 87

Fabio Leimer 65

Marcus Ericsson 52

Johnny Ceccotto 41

Steano Coletti 31

Felipe Nasr 31

Jolyon Palmer 28

Dillmann deniedvalsecci a fou in

tHe bLOg //by th wtr r

We were all set or thepress conerence, but with theLotus drivers called up to see thestewards, the only driver ready orit was Felipe Nasr, who was sittingin hospitality with his uncle. Wemight as well come to you,I toldhim, as I explained what hadhappened. The air conditioning isbetter here, apart rom anythingelse.His uncle thought it washilarious, and laughed all the waythrough. I dont think he had eversat next to his nephew during apress conerence beore, and hemade the most o it!

click for the bloG latest

Gp3pirelli

razia ook e opsep of e podium

on e las lap

the nUMber oFsAfetY CAr restArts

vALenCiA//th tt

anadas podium feauedee GP2 gaduaes

eAMtAnDings

Lotus GP 182

DAMS 169

Arden International 144

Carlin 119

Racing Engineering 106

Caterham Racing 95

iSport International 79

Scuderia Coloni 43

Luiz rAziAhad e mos o e

app aou in valencia.Despie ing issues

aking a so of icoaa on auda, a las

lap ie sa im akee in on unda andmoe o iin a poin

of Daide valsecci.

LOtus gPsean Guiez on

on auda afe Jamesalados ico ad eendenied e safe ca.

n unda, aladofoug alianl o

ake a podium.

rACingengineering

had a good eekend aome, scoing a aceof poins in valencia.

Peaps ei neinaale toio

as o ank.

bArwA ADDAXbo Jonn ecooand Josef Kal ee

disqualied fom eFeaue ace oe eiegulaiies. n epin ace, ecoo

cased ou and Kalfinised ou of epoins, making i aeekend o foge.

DAviDevALseCCHi

ef valencia i islead in e campionsipcu o jus one poin afeacking up zeo poins foe s ime is season.sean Guiez

ook is sFeaue ace in

5

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ck here forebansprofile

click here forfull story

stEbanutiErrEzus GP

wOuLdntE hErE

withOut...st of all, I dont thinke here without the helpsupport of my parents,

brothers, my sister, myly, my friends and ofse, my sponsors but

one person above all whom I couldnt have

as far as I have is God.elieve that I am hereause as a family project,

have some kind of asion to achieve. It isortant to not only be

e for ourselves and to wins, because success is notmeasured in numbers...ast, that is my view.ccess can be measured

many other things, andone part of this is to

races. The other thingshare with people andake a dierence to other

ples lives and to beneter people with the sameess that I have enjoyed.

9.501tiME COVErinG

POintssCOrErs in GP2sPrint at thE LinE

VaLEnCia //T sTTs

nEw GP2tyrE rEGsfOr britainA fth set of Pirelli tyres willbe provided to the driversfrom Silverstone onwards, itwas announced this week.In line with the Seriesphilosophy o usingcompounds as close aspossible to those in F1, ithas been decided that romSilverstone onwards, eachdriver will be provided with anadditional set o Option tyres,bringing the total sets o dry-

weather tyres allowed to fve.Three sets o primespecifcation and two setso optionspeci fcation willbe allocated to each driverbeore the start o the reepractice session. Once usedin ree practice, one set oprimemust be returned toPirelli beore the start o thequaliying practice session.Each driver will still haveour sets two Primes andtwo Options to use duringqualiying and the races.

GP2 Series CEO Bruno Michelsaid: Our main goal in GP2 isto prepare our drivers or thenext step. Adding a fth set otyres is a antastic opportunityor our teams and drivers. As inF1, it will entice the teams touse two dierent compoundsin Saturdays race and will addto the excitement o the show.

Pirelli Racing ManagerMario Isola said: By adding

an extra set o soter tyres tothe weekend allocation, weare giving the drivers moreoptions in terms o strategyand more experience o thetyres. This will allow them tohave more inormation withwhich to plan a strategy overthe course o the weekend.With more opportunitiesto show their skills, we lookorward to helping the nextgeneration o championsemerge rom GP2.

preview

// BT // sLVsTO// 6-8 JULY

Medium and hard (below) ompound for silvertone

//JULes Bianchi (LOTUs arT)

2011 fEaturE raCE winnEr

//rOMain grOsJean (DaMs)

2011 sPrint raCE winnEr

2011 raCE wEathEr //OVercasT

2011 traCk tEMP //26c

traCk LEnGth //5.901KM

tyrE stratEGyrEfLECts GP2sPath tO thE tOPSince its introduction in 2005, GP2 hasestablished itself as the principal feedercategory to Formula One and Pirelli is proud

to be part of this important tradition. Withthe Italian firm supplying tyres to GP3 as well,there is now a ladder of talent that extends allthe way up to the pinnacle of the sport.

As an example, two of the drivers whostarred in GP3 with Pirelli and are now GP2frontrunners include Esteban Gutierrez Pirellis inaugural GP3 champion in 2010 wasvictorious in Valencia and James Calado, whoqualified on pole in Valencia and won PirellisGP2 scholarship last year in Abu Dhabi.

Looking at the broader picture, some ofthe GP2 stars who have gone on to shine inFormula One include Lewis Hamilton, NicoRosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Vitaly Petrov,Romain Grosjean, Pastor Maldonado, TimoGlock, Bruno Senna, Sergio Perez, Charles Picand Kamui Kobayashi. Pirelli test driver Lucas diGrassi also came up through the ranks of GP2,having finished in the top three of the highly-competitive series three times.

GP2 has always been incrediblycompetitive, and to get an idea of the qualityof the racing, its enough to look at the list ofdrivers who have made it th rough to FormulaOne,said di Grassi. I feel fortunate to haveraced there, and the Series definitely helpedme to perfect my skills as a driver. Its theestablished route to Formula One now.

Pirellis GP2 tyres also help to preparedrivers for Formula One by emulating the top

categorys tyre regulations and characteristicsas much as possible. The GP2 teams an ddrivers have at their disposal two differenttypes of Pirelli P Zero slicks to use during arace weekend, just like Formula One. Thecolour markings used in Formula One arealso applied in GP2 and there are pit stopsdesigned to help drivers think about strategy,not to mention tyres that have a degree ofdeliberate degradation.

In the GP2 sprint race in Valencia, forexample, the leading cars all closed up oneach other in the closing stages, allowing LuizRazia to take a dramatic victory on the final lap.

The tyres were one of the factors behind this,mirroring the hugely competitive nature ofthis years Formula One season.

In the GP2 Series, the ability to race hardand get the most out of the tyres is moreimportant than ever just as it is at the verypinnacle of motor sport.

With ondition warm andunny in Valenia, it eemedlike a perfet opportunity toather toether ome of thetar of the 2012 gP2 eaonfor a photohoot on the treetof the ity. We napped all thewinner o far, inludin (fromtop left) Luiz azia, Jamecalado, Johnny ceotto, JolyonPalmer, Tom Dillmann, DavideValehi, giedo van der gardeand Luiz azia (aain!)

GaLLEry//T sD VW

http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Esteban/http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Esteban/http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Esteban/http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2012/06_June/GP2-Series-tyre-strategy-gets-even-closer-to-F1/http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2012/06_June/GP2-Series-tyre-strategy-gets-even-closer-to-F1/http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2012/06_June/GP2-Series-tyre-strategy-gets-even-closer-to-F1/http://www.gp2series.com/Teams-and-Drivers/Drivers/Esteban/http://gp3series.com/http://gp2series.com/http://gp2series.com/

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pirelligp2 gallery

evans day to remembervalencia // race 1 winner: mitch evans // race 2 winner: Patric niederhauser

Q+a: patrick niederhauser

Mitch Evans will remember his 18th birthday.The New Zealander had an incredible weekendin Valencia, with maximum points in Race 1 anda return to the lead in the championship.

race 1The race was a masterclass rom Evans, whoheld o the advances o his championship rival,Aaro Vainio to win by 2.19 seconds. Team-mateDavid Fumanelli had to be content with thirdand his frst GP3 podium, while behind Ellinas,Laine, Abt, Ceccon, Niederhauser, Pal Kiss andBuller completed the points scorers. With theastest lap in his pocket, Evans set up a strongpoints tally or the weekend.

race 2The reverse grid saw Evans again on a charge,fghting through to take sixth place, but thebattle ahead had everyone on their seats.Jenzer rookie Patric Niederhauser showedcomposure to head o Daniel Abt or thewin, with Laine in third showing that the MWArden car is now, perhaps, the class o the feld.Fastest lap and the fnal point went to AntonioFelix da Costa, who started rom the back othe grid, showing incredible pace to emergein the points. Evans now leads Vainio by ourpoints with a gap already starting to emergeback to Abt in third. But with fve roundsremaining, theres still a long way to go.

Congratulations, your rst win in theGP3 Series, how do you feel?I am very happy. I didnt have the beststart, I had too much wheel spin and sawDaniel passing me. I knew it was all about

the brakes into the frst corner because itsso important to keep the advantage there.I was late on my braking but luckily it wasokay. I pushed like crazy in the frst ew lapsso that Daniel couldnt attack me. I just hadto stay calm and save the tyres, but ater avery bad qualiying I am so happy today.

How were your concentration levels at atrack like Valencia, with the walls so closeand leading the race under pressure?The problem in Valencia is that therearent any ast corners. You always have tobrake on the limit otherwise you are slow,especially at the last corner. I knew I hadthe gap at 1.5 seconds, so i I made amistake, he would would have got veryclose and could potentially have won therace. I knew I couldnt make any errors soI am very happy.You have now moved up to joint fourth inthe standings, one of the highest placedrookies in the Series, what are yourexpectations from Silverstone onwards?My personal target is to stay in the topfve which would be good or me. Theupcoming tracks are ones I know more orless, I hope to do more podiums and more

wins. Ideally I would like to win Race 1 topick up more points. Our problem at themoment is to improve our qualiying, thePirelli tyres only allow you one or two lapsand I need to sort this out as I have made aew mistakes. I I can improve this, my racepace is good so I need to take it rom there.

Gp3to me:

GP3 means a huge

amount to Dallara

because Bruno Michel

appointed us to design

the car. We had done a

good job in GP2, and itwas the greatest thanks

that we as a company

could receive. Now we

are working on the next

generation car to ensure

GP3 goes from strength

to strength.

Ayrton Senna:O course I am Brazilian so I wouldsupport Senna but I loved watchinghim. I have seen many videos o himand I particularly enjoyed his successesin Monaco. I also liked the act he was asimple man but such an amazing talent.

my hero...tio ellinas

dmitry suranovich

fabiano machado

Ayrton Senna:From the beginning o his career, Sennaknew what he wanted to achieve and wasalways doing great things. My avouriteSenna race was Donington 1993 when hecame rom fth to frst on lap one.

Fernando Alonso:I have admired Fernando or a longtime. When I was young it was all aboutMichael Schumacher, but Fernando camethrough and equalled him and I becamea an. Alonso is ast and there are alwaysinteresting moments watching him.

luca Pignacca