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Glock takes last lap glory in Germany |
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Sunday, 30 July 2006 |
Timo Glock has taken an incredible last lap victory at his home event in the Sunday GP2 series race here at Hockenheim from José María López. Lewis Hamilton took his second podium of the weekend in
third place, as his main rival Nelson Piquet Jr again failed to finish.
Race Report: At the start, Clivio Piccione led the field away,
with José, and Giorgio Pantano tucked in behind him. At the hairpin,
José tucked up the inside of the Monegasque driver, and as Clivio was
forced to give him room to pass he ran wide onto the apron. Giorgio
blasted past Clivio, and the Monegasque tagged Giorgio and spun out.
All this left José leading from Giorgio and a fast-starting Timo who
was up to third from sixth. The German was in fighting mood after
missing out on the chance of a win yesterday through a speeding
penalty, and he made quick work of Giorgio, blasting through at the
hairpin and holding on in a battle of chicken with the Italian on the
run down to the next corner.
José was now leading by a second, and over the following laps would
pull out a further second and a half to lead Timo at ease. Further
back, Lewis was also on a mission. Having started seventh, he quickly
dispatched Adam Carroll, Ernesto Viso and Giorgio, although the Italian
really made him fight.
Meanwhile, Alex Prémat and Hiroki Yoshimoto were out of the race, the
Frenchman having made a number of robust moves on the Japanese which
failed to come off. Afterwards Alex would be handed a ten-place grid
penalty for the next race for the incident, and Hiroki was reprimanded
for his “ungentlemanly” gestures of discontent towards his rival.
Up at the front Timo was starting to cut into José’s lead by a few
tenths each lap. The gap started to fall, little by little, and as they
went into the final lap of the race they were separated by just 0.9
seconds. José made the slightest of mistakes at turn one however, and
Timo saw his chance. On the run up to turn two José had to defend his
line, and just as he had done with Giorgio on Saturday, Timo stuck to
his guns and breezed by on the normal line.
Timo crossed the line 1.3 seconds ahead of José with Lewis a distant
third. Ernesto had caught and passed Giorgio to finish fourth with the
Italian fifth and Gimmi Bruni, winner of race one, sixth. José’s
obvious disappointment was tempered slightly with the knowledge he had
set the fastest lap of the race, but in the end the ultimate glory fell
to the local hero, Timo.
What about the championship? Lewis now leads on 82 points, with Nelson
back on 56 in second place. Alex remains third on 49, but Timo’s
awesome run of recent success sees him in fourth on 40 points, well in
the hunt for third and second position. In the team’s championship ART
Grand Prix now has 131 points, and iSport International have
leapfrogged Piquet Sports to go second on 75. Piquet Sports are now
third on 64, with Arden International fourth on 50.
1st Timo Glock – iSport International. 38:36.598 I tried to do
it yesterday but I didn’t want to believe it until I actually crossed
the line today. I woke up this morning and said to myself that today I
was going to win, to pay the team back for my mistake in race one.
2nd Jose Maria Lopez – Super Nova International. +1.322 I don’t
feel right. I should be happy because after quali nobody would have bet
on me fighting for the win. But today I was hoping to win. Timo was
very motivated, and its just such a shame for the team.
3rd Lewis Hamilton – ART Grand Prix. +12.610 For me it couldn’t
get much better. Considering our qualifying we’ve had a great weekend.
The team did a fantastic job as usual. It was a bit unfortunate for
Nelson, but that’s the way it goes.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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