Senna Dominates Marshy Silverstone Victory
Jul 06, 2008
Senna reigns in waterlogged Silverstone Brazilian wins chaotic race two. Bruno Senna controlled the elements and his rivals to record a dominant second win of the season on a soaking wet Silverstone circuit, taking the top spot on the podium ahead of Lucas di Grassi and Giorgio Pantano.
The Brazilian reigned supreme in a race which saw most of the field succumb to the extreme conditions in some form: a strong start and pressure on pole sitter Luca Filippi handed Senna thelead one the first lap and he never looked back, building and then maintaining a solid lead to takethe chequered flag by 8.5 seconds over his countryman.
The first few laps were chaotic, with Zuber bogging down from the front row at the start andbunching up the field causing problems further back: Senna, di Grassi and Pantano were effectively the only drivers to not run off the soaked circuit, pushing most of the regular point scorers into unfamiliar positions and forcing them to challenge drivers who they do not normallyfight with in the dry.
Rain reappeared heavily halfway through the race, causing misery for much of the field but anamazing spectacle for the spectators: while Senna pulled away Grosjean was slicing through thefield after stopping for a new front wing, with Vitaly Petrov and Andy Soucek running almost sideby side for lap after lap, and Kamui Kobayashi also showing strong speed to try and make up for his disappointment from race one.
The race result wasn’t clear until the chequered flag dropped: while Senna was clearly ahead of di Grassi at the end, Pantano pushed hard over the closing laps to put himself on the Brazilian’stail at the end of the race after watching his mirrors throughout the race and seeing them full of Mike Conway’s car; the Briton just failed to get onto the podium at his home circuit while behind him Petrov won the battle over Soucek when the latter fell off track in the fight for fifth. The last place should have gone to Kobayashi only for Adrian Valles to spin unavoidably in front of him on the final lap, handing sixth to series returnee Davide Valsecchi.
The second podium in a row meant that Pantano has stretched his lead out to 50 points, ahead of Senna on 39 and Sébastien Buemi, who spun on the installation lap and therefore did not race,on 25 points, which is one ahead of di Grassi and a further point ahead of Grosjean as the fieldlooks towards Hockenheim for the next round of the series.
Fastest lap time: Pastor Maldonado (Piquet Sports): 1:47.801 on lap 21Maldonado did not finish in the Top 10. He does not qualify for Bonus Point.
Vitaly Petrov (Barwa Int. Campos Team) was second fastest in a 1:48.226 and collects the Bonus Point
