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Timo Glock claimed the GP2 championship in perfect style by
dominating the final race of the season at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in
Valencia, controlling the pace from the start to win from local drivers
Javier Villa and Andy Soucek.
With the title all but
mathematically done the pressure was off the German, who responded with
a storming start before walking away into the distance, slowing
slightly in the closing laps to take the chequered flag by 5.4 seconds.
Villa started the second race from his familiar pole position, but
when the lights went out Glock easily overtook his fellow front row
starter to lead the field into the first turn, while behind the pair
Soucek moved left from third on the grid to cover Borja Garcia, handing
a clean run up the right hand side of the long straight to Marcos
Martinez, who started like a rocket to put himself third position at
the first corner.
Behind them the Campos pairing of Giorgio
Pantano and Vitaly Petrov blew past Kazuki Nakajima to put themselves
up to sixth and seventh respectively, while Luca Filippi had the best
start of all to move up from 18th to 9th behind the Japanese driver as
he looked to defend his third place in the championship from Pantano,
who was only one point behind in the standings going into the final
race.
Another driver who was pushing for all he was worth was
Lucas di Grassi, whose title challenge was in need of a miracle: the
Brazilian was slicing through the field, more in hope than expectation,
but nevertheless from 22nd on the grid he was up to 13th and looking
for any chances that could come his way. Unfortunately for di Grassi he
was now on the tail of Glock's teammate Andi Zuber, who was clearly
under instructions not to let the ART driver through.
Back at the
front Glock was setting fastest lap after fastest lap in an attempt to
shake off the attention of Villa, who doggedly clung on for as long as
he could, but it was to no avail: the German was just too fast, and he
had soon built up an unassailable lead. The Spaniard's teammate was
certainly unable to stay with the leading drivers: on the second lap he
ran wide at the last corner and dropped from fourth to fourteenth, and
a few corners later he was stuck in a three into one corner doesn't fit
situation and was squeezed off and into last place
Further back,
however, Petrov was pushing just a little too hard behind his teammate,
and eventually paid the price: on lap 20 the Russian ran wide through
the gravel at the back of the circuit and fell to 8th place, handing a
vital point to Filippi, who was having the battle of his life holding
back Nakajima.
But when the chequered flag fell it was Glock,
pumping his hands manically in the air, who was first across the line,
ahead of Villa, Soucek, Garcia, Pantano and Filippi, who held off race
long pressure from Nakajima to claim the point for sixth, with Glock
taking the fastest lap along the way. The result meant that the German
could relax at last, secure in the knowledge that he had held on to win
the title ahead of di Grassi (who couldn't find a way by Zuber),
Pantano (who took third in the final race by dint of a greater number
of wins than his countryman) and Filippi, while also helping iSport
International claim their first teams championship, ahead of ART,
Campos Grand Prix and Super Nova International.
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