Buemi Storms To Race Two Win At The Hungaroring
Aug 03, 2008
GP2 Series
Sébastien Buemi has dominated the field in scorching conditions this morning in race two at the Hungaroring, blasting by his fellow front row starter Andy Soucek to take a strong win ahead of the Spaniard and Bruno Senna. The win came as a result of the mounting pressure he put on his rival, with Soucek running slightly wide at turn 12 and handing a clear run through to the flag for the likeable Swiss driver.
At the start it was Soucek who came off the grid best, getting a great start when the lights went out to lead Buemi, Mike Conway and super starter Lucas di Grassi into turn one: the latter tapping the Briton as they entered the corner but both men held their lines ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Bruno Senna. The front two were in a class of their own, swapping fastest laps as they built a lead over di Grassi, whose fight with Conway spilled over when they came together at turn two on the second lap, with the Brazilian continuing but the Briton spinning around.
Di Grassi was soon handed a drive through penalty for his antics, promoting Maldonado to an astonishing podium position after failing to even make qualifying on Friday, a great return by anyone’s standards, but all eyes were on the Soucek / Buemi battle as the pair left everyone else behind. The Spaniard held his own for 12 laps, but eventually the pressure blew: with an oversteering car he ran wide into turn 12 and that was all the incentive Buemi needed, nipping through into a lead he would not relinquish to anyone.
With Soucek slowing it looked to be Maldonado’s chance: the Venezuelan pushed hard to put himself on his rival’s tail, but the twisty nature of the circuit was working against him until heartbreak struck in the form of a mechanical gremlin, and his race was bitterly over with just 3 laps remaining. While Buemi ultimately won by 8 seconds, second place wasn’t certain until Soucek crossed the line with his nose just fractionally ahead of Senna, who added more points for his title challenge.
Six seconds further back Sakon Yamamoto had a quiet but sensible drive to open his points scoring account by taking fourth place ahead of the squabbling Racing Engineering drivers, with Giorgio Pantano just holding on ahead of a fierce, race-long challenge from Javier Villa, while di Grassi salvaged a point for the fastest lap: the result meant that Pantano holds on to his championship lead on 65 points but is now just 7 ahead of Senna, while di Grassi on 39 heads Romain Grosjean by 3 points with Buemi just a further 2 points behind the Frenchman.
