With three wins this season - which brings his personal record to eight GP2 wins in total - GiorgioPantano has become the most successful GP2 driver in the history of the Championship. Thetalented and experienced Racing Engineering ace is still leading the drivers’ standings and hasnow managed an eleven point gap with Bruno Senna. Meanwhile, the Brazilian - who will beseeking to claim his third pole position of the season - is fourteen points ahead of Magny-Courssprint race winner Sébastien Buemi. In fourth place, GP2 returnee Lucas di Grassi scored animpressive 24 points, including three second places, in only two rounds. One point behind theBrazilian, Romain Grosjean stands in fifth place. Since his win in Turkey, the GP2 Asia SeriesChampion struggled with mechanical problems and some bad luck, all combined with smallmistakes.
Vitaly Petrov, Alvaro Parente, Karun Chandhok, Andreas Zuber and Pastor Maldonado completethe Top 10 in the drivers’ championship. All five men are separated by only two points: Petrovleads with 20 points, Maldonado stands 10thwith 18 points. The Series can also count on greatpotentials including Monaco sprint race winner Mike Conway or Kamui Kobayashi. The Damsdriver sure has the pace, but has been pretty unlucky so far. All those men are possible threats toPantano as they will give their best on the track to try and prevent the Italian from crossing thefinish-line a winner yet again.
Often criticized because of its remote location, the Hockenheim circuit itself can produce somefierce racing as drivers play chicken with their braking points on the way into the hairpin at the endof the long, quick parabolica. But, as well as good straight-line speed, the numerous slow andmedium corners demand a balanced setup. It’s a track that Swiss Sébastien Buemi knows well,having raced there on his way to GP2 Series. “We should see a lot of overtaking at Hockenheim,“explained Trust Team Arden’s man. “I expect the passing will be in the same places as in F3. Turntwo, then after the long straight into turn three and then finally in the Mercedes Arena. “If you lookat the first corner it’s impressive, everybody speaks about it. It’s really fast and very easy to go offand crash there. You need to carry a lot of speed into the corner but be aware that the curbs arereally high and can pitch you into the barriers. It’s going to be great to come back and drive GP2here. I can’t wait for the race, especially to see whether some of the corners we used to take flat inan F3 car can be done the same in GP2!”
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