Adam Carroll today became the ninth driver to win a GP2 Series race in the first nine races of the 2007 season… driving the number nine FMS International car! The Ulsterman delighted the British crowds with a typically ballsy drive, to take his first win of the season on just his second weekend back in the series. Pastor Maldonado came home second for Trident Racing while Kazuki Nakajima popped in his second podium of the weekend in third.
Race Report: At the start it was Pastor who sped into the lead as pole sitter Roldan Rodriguez bogged down. He was followed through turn one by a fast starting Lucas di Grassi, but by the time the cars reached Hangar Straight, Adam had leapt past the Brazilian and set off after Pastor. For the next 16 laps we were treated to a fine spectacle as the pair traded tenths of a second, never split by more than a second.
Behind them Timo Glock was making good progress towards the points, but appeared to be spun out by a tap from Adrian Zaugg at Luffield. His weekend over, Timo now has two weeks to reflect before his home race at the Nürburgring.
Kazuki meanwhile really was on a mission, and on lap nine frightened fourth placed Roldan into running wide at the Farm chicane. The Japanese was through and off after Lucas. Up at the front, Adam was heaping the pressure on Pastor, and when the Venezuelan appeared to slow in front of the Brit, the FMS driver slung his car around the outside of the leader at Farm, and leapt into the lead. Kazuki had, by now, closed up on Lucas, and passed him with a brave move on the inside of Copse to get up onto the podium.
Adam pulled out a two second lead on Pastor with relative ease, as Kazuki reeled in the Monaco winner with every passing lap. As Adam crossed the finish line to the delight of his fans, and of course his team, Pastor had just managed to keep the rampant fastest lap holder Kazuki behind him, as Lucas held on for fourth ahead of Mike Conway and Andi Zuber.
What about the championship? Timo now hasn’t scored a point under race conditions for four races, but still leads the championship on 39. Lucas is now second on 37, with Luca third on 35. In the teams’ championship, iSport International lead on 59, with Super Nova International second on 47, four points ahead of ART Grand Prix.
1 st Adam Carroll – FMS International. It’s unbelievable. People get different emotions from winning but it’s just such a relief that I can still do it, and given the right team and the right opportunity I know I can run as hard as any of them and race with the best. Hopefully now we can be consistent and prove that we are as good as the guys who have won this championship and hopefully we’ll get the shot at Formula One.
2 nd Pastor Maldonado – Trident Racing. +0 It’s my second podium. I think we can fight for all the season. We need to work, we need to improve a little bit more and improve the car to be on the top in all the races, but we are working and its better to be on the top again.
3 rd Kazuki Nakajima: Dams. + Yeah, it’s really, really good weekend, a great weekend. I think this is our potential. We had some sign from the beginning of the season but we couldn’t make it as a result. Now we could do that and also we had a great race in this weekend so I’m really happy.
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