The 2008 GP2 Series season was the forty-second season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also fourth season under the GP2 Series moniker. It began on 26 April at Montmeló, Spain and it finished on 14 September at Monza, Italy. This is the first season using a new car design to be used during the following 3 seasons. The series was won by Giorgio Pantano.
Season summary
The fourth GP2 Series season started in Circuit de Catalunya. Pastor Maldonado took first pole position of the season, but he couldn't use the advantage after a very bad start. Alvaro Parente won in his debut race in the series. In the sprint race, Romain Grosjean was heading for victory until late-race safety car. When the safety car went back to the pits, Grosjean straight-lined the chicane and lost momentum. He then blocked Kamui Kobayashi, receiving drive through penalty. Kobayashi won the race while Grosjean was left without points.
At Turkey, Giorgio Pantano won from pole in the feature race. Grosjean won the sprint race which included several multi-car incidents on the first lap, as well as two stray dogs on the track. One of them was hit by Bruno Senna whose car was damaged and he had to retire. Luckily Senna escaped without injury. Senna then won at Monaco, on the track where his uncle Ayrton had won six times. In the sprint race, which was held for the first time in Monaco, Mike Conway was victorious. He was heading for third place in feature race before being punted off by Javier Villa on the final lap. He was lucky in the event, as only eight drivers were unlapped, so he ended in eight and therefore for the pole in the sprint.
Magny-Cours feature race was won by Pantano after Grosjean and Senna suffered mechanical retirements. The sprint race started on damp track and few drivers gambled starting with slicks. This worked well for Arden drivers, as Sébastien Buemi won from 21st on the grid. His teammate Yelmer Buurman was second. At Silverstone Pantano won the feature again, and wet sprint race was dominated by Senna.
At Hockenheim Grosjean finished first on the road, but he was later penalized for overtaking under yellow flag, giving Pantano third straight feature race victory. Karun Chandhok won the sprint race from pole. At Hungaroring, Lucas di Grassi who had returned to GP2 in Magny-Cours, won the feature race, while Buemi won the sprint after polesitter Andy Soucek made a small mistake.
The feature race at Valencia ended in dramatic fashion. Pantano was on road for victory before he ran out of fuel on the final lap. Several other drivers suffered same fate, including Senna who could get his car over the finish line but in 9th place. Vitaly Petrov inherited the win. Pantano recovered well in sprint race to take third place while Senna crashed out. di Grassi was the winner.
With four races to go, Pantano led by 13 points on Senna and 20 on di Grassi. Senna took the pole in Spa, but his race was destroyed by drive through penalty for unsafe release by the team in his pit stop. Pantano suffered mechanical glitch during safety car and was dropped to back of the field. He was recovering until he collided with di Grassi on the final lap. Pantano was disqualified for the race and also excluded from the sprint. Grosjean won the feature while Maldonado took his first victory of the season in the sprint, overtaking Jérôme d'Ambrosio on the final lap.
Pantano got perfect start for final weekend with pole, therefore knocking di Grassi out from the championship hunt. A race started in wet conditions and mandatory pit stop was done as late as possible, as the track was ready for slicks. di Grassi won while Pantano ended in 10th after drive through penalty for crossing white line at the pit exit. It didn't matter much: while Senna couldn't finish better than 5th, Pantano clinched the title with one race to go. The sprint race was held in wet conditions as well and won by polesitter Davide Valsecchi.
Teams and drivers All of the teams used the Dallara GP2/08 chassis with Renault-badged 4.0 litre (244 cu in) naturally-aspirated Mecachrome V8 engines order and with tyres supplied by Bridgestone. On 19 October 2007, it was announced that the same 13 teams which took part in 2007 would continue into 2008. Team Driver name Rounds iSport International 1 Karun Chandhok All 2 Bruno Senna All ART Grand Prix 3 Luca Filippi 1–5 Sakon Yamamoto 6–10 4 Romain Grosjean All Barwa International Campos Team 5 Vitaly Petrov All 6 Ben Hanley 1–3 Lucas di Grassi 4–10 Super Nova Racing 7 Christian Bakkerud 1, 3 Andy Soucek 2, 4–10 8 Álvaro Parente All DAMS 9 Jérôme d'Ambrosio All 10 Kamui Kobayashi All Racing Engineering 11 Javier Villa All 12 Giorgio Pantano All Trust Team Arden 14 Sébastien Buemi All 15 Yelmer Buurman 1–5 Luca Filippi 6–10 Durango 16 Davide Valsecchi 1–2, 5–10 Marcello Puglisi 3 Ben Hanley 4 17 Alberto Valério All Fisichella Motor Sport International 18 Roldán Rodríguez All 19 Adrián Vallés 1 Adam Carroll 2–3 Marko Asmer 4–10 Trident Racing 20 Mike Conway All 21 Ho-Pin Tung All Piquet Sports 22 Andreas Zuber All 23 Pastor Maldonado All DPR 24 Giacomo Ricci 1–2 Andy Soucek 3 Michael Herck 4–10 25 Diego Nunes All BCN Competición 26 Paolo Maria Nocera 1 Adrián Vallés 2–10 27 Miloš Pavlović 1–3 Carlos Iaconelli 4–10Sources:
Calendar The original calendar was released on 25 March 2008 and had a standalone event on the 31 May – 1 June at the Valencia's Ricardo Tormo circuit. However, on the 18 April 2008, it was confirmed that a deal had been agreed for a GP2 event to run alongside the new European GP at the Valencia Street Circuit instead of the original date at the Ricardo Tormo circuit. Also, for the first time in the history of GP2, two races were held at Monaco. All of the races supported the Formula One Grands Prix indicated by the relevant flags, except the round at Valencia which supported the 2008 European Grand Prix.
Round Location Circuit Date Time Tyres Supporting Local UTC 1 Montmeló, Spain Circuit de Catalunya 26 April 16:00 14:00 Hard 27 April 10:30 08:30 2 F Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul Park 10 May 16:00 13:00 Hard S 11 May 11:30 08:30 3 F Monte Carlo, Monaco Circuit de Monaco 23 May 11:15 09:15 Super Soft S 24 May 16:00 14:00 4 F Magny-Cours, France Circuit de Magny-Cours 21 June 16:00 14:00 Medium S 22 June 10:30 08:30 5 F Silverstone, Great Britain Silverstone Circuit 5 July 15:00 14:00 Medium S 6 July 09:30 08:30 6 F Hockenheim, Germany Hockenheimring 19 July 16:00 14:00 Medium S 20 July 10:30 08:30 7 F Mogyoród, Hungary Hungaroring 2 August 16:00 14:00 Medium S 3 August 10:30 08:30 8 F Valencia, Spain Valencia Street Circuit 23 August 16:00 14:00 Medium S 24 August 10:30 08:30 9 F Stavelot, Belgium Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps 6 September 16:00 14:00 Medium S 7 September 10:30 08:30 10 F Monza, Italy Autodromo Nazionale Monza 13 September 16:00 14:00 Medium S 14 September 10:30 08:30Source:
The following rounds were included on the provisional calendars published by the FIA but were cancelled: Round Location Circuit Date Supporting Cheste, Spain Circuit Ricardo Tormo 31 May Stand-alone event 1 June
Results Round Circuit Pole position Fastest lap Winning driver Winning team Report 1 Circuit de Catalunya Pastor Maldonado Álvaro Parente Super Nova Racing Report Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 2 F Istanbul Park Giorgio Pantano Andreas Zuber Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering Report S Romain Grosjean Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 3 F Circuit de Monaco Pastor Maldonado Bruno Senna Bruno Senna iSport International Report S Mike Conway Trident Racing 4 F Circuit de Magny-Cours Bruno Senna Giorgio Pantano Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering Report S Kamui Kobayashi Sébastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 5 F Silverstone Circuit Bruno Senna Giorgio Pantano Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering Report S Bruno Senna iSport International 6 F Hockenheimring Giorgio Pantano Giorgio Pantano Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering Report S Karun Chandhok iSport International 7 F Hungaroring Romain Grosjean Lucas di Grassi Barwa International Campos Team Report S Lucas di Grassi Sébastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 8 F Valencia Street Circuit Giorgio Pantano Vitaly Petrov Barwa International Campos Team Report S Lucas di Grassi Lucas di Grassi Barwa International Campos Team 9 F Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Bruno Senna Romain Grosjean Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix Report S Pastor Maldonado Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 10 F Autodromo Nazionale Monza Giorgio Pantano Lucas di Grassi Barwa International Campos Team Report S Davide Valsecchi DurangoSource:
Championship standings Scoring system Points are awarded to the top 8 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 6 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race will also receive two points, and one point is given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points are awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race.
Feature race points Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Pole FL Points 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 1
Sprint race points Points are awarded to the top 6 classified finishers.
Position 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th FL Points 6 5 4 3 2 1 1
Drivers' Championship Pos Driver CAT IST MON MAG SIL HOC HUN VAL SPA MNZ Points 1 Giorgio Pantano 4 3 1 4 Ret Ret 1 Ret 1 3 1 Ret 14 5 14† 3 DSQ EX 10 5 76 2 Bruno Senna 2 4 15 Ret 1 5 Ret 5 6 1 4 3 3 3 9 Ret 11 Ret 5 8 64 3 Lucas di Grassi 2 4 2 2 5 Ret 1 10 4 1 20† 5 1 11 63 4 Romain Grosjean 5 13 2 1 Ret 10 Ret Ret 5 8 2 4 17 12 3 Ret 1 9 4 3 62 5 Pastor Maldonado 12 Ret Ret Ret 2 Ret 3 7 Ret 15† 6 17 5 18† 2 Ret 3 1 2 4 60 6 Sébastien Buemi 7 2 6 3 Ret 11 Ret 1 4 DNS Ret 8 7 1 6 Ret 5 4 3 7 50 7 Vitaly Petrov 6 Ret 5 2 Ret 15 4 18† 10 5 Ret 11 Ret 9 1 15† 4 3 Ret Ret 39 8 Álvaro Parente 1 7 Ret 8 5 3 9 Ret 16 Ret 3 6 16 Ret 16† Ret 2 Ret Ret 12 34 9 Andreas Zuber 3 Ret 3 Ret 11 17 5 8 7 11 11† 2 2 7 Ret Ret DSQ Ret Ret 10 32 10 Karun Chandhok 9 Ret 4 12 3 Ret 7 Ret 3 Ret 8 1 4 DNS 15† Ret 10 7 11 Ret 31 11 Jérôme d'Ambrosio Ret 15 Ret Ret 9 7 6 Ret 9 12 Ret 10 9 Ret 5 2 8 2 7 6 21 12 Mike Conway Ret 8 9 5 8† 1 8 6 14 4 Ret 9 6 11 Ret 8 7 Ret 13 Ret 20 13 Roldán Rodríguez Ret Ret 12 13 6 4 Ret 16 11 Ret 18† 15 19 Ret Ret 10 21† Ret 6 2 14 14 Andy Soucek 19 Ret 13 6 13 Ret 12 Ret 7 19 8 2 7 Ret 6 Ret 9 18 14 15 Davide Valsecchi 10 5 DNS DNS 19 6 Ret 13 Ret 13 NC 7 Ret 6 8 1 11 16 Kamui Kobayashi 8 1 Ret 9 Ret Ret Ret 9 Ret 7 Ret 18 11 8 Ret 6 9 14 Ret 13 10 17 Javier Villa 14 6 7 15 14 13 14 10 13 Ret 10† 5 13 6 Ret 5 17 8 Ret EX 8 18 Ho-Pin Tung Ret 14 11 Ret 7 2 Ret 14 18 Ret 13† 7 Ret 14 Ret 9 15 10 Ret 9 7 19 Luca Filippi 11 Ret 16 14 Ret 12 10 3 8 Ret Ret Ret 15 Ret 8 13 19 Ret 16 Ret 6 20 Yelmer Buurman Ret 10 14 Ret 12 8 12 2 15 10 5 21 Adrián Vallés 18 11 10 Ret 4 16 15 12 22 14† 15 Ret Ret 19 11 Ret 13 13 WD WD 5 22 Diego Nunes 15 16 13 10 15 9 11 Ret 17 Ret Ret 20 12 15 10 4 12 Ret Ret 16 3 23 Sakon Yamamoto 12† NC 10 4 Ret Ret 18 Ret Ret Ret 3 24 Ben Hanley Ret 9 17 6 16 14 Ret Ret 1 25 Adam Carroll 8 Ret Ret Ret 1 26 Alberto Valério 13 Ret 18 7 Ret Ret 18 17 21 9 9 14 DNS 17 Ret 12 Ret Ret 12 15 0 27 Christian Bakkerud Ret DNS 10 Ret 0 28 Carlos Iaconelli 16 13 DNS Ret 16 16 Ret Ret 13 11 Ret 12 14 14 0 29 Marko Asmer 17 11 20 13 14 12 18 Ret DNS Ret 16 Ret 15 Ret 0 30 Michael Herck Ret 15 23 DNS 17 Ret Ret 16 12 14 14 11 Ret 17 0 31 Giacomo Ricci 16 Ret Ret 11 0 32 Miloš Pavlović DNS 12 Ret 16 DNS DNS 0 33 17 Ret 0 34 Marcello Puglisi 17 Ret 0 Pos Driver CAT IST MON MAG SIL HOC HUN VAL SPA MNZ PointsSources: Notes: – Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
Teams' Championship