The 2010 Valencia GP2 Series round was a GP2 Series motor race held on June 26 and June 27, 2010, at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain. It was the fourth round of the 2010 GP2 Series. The race was used to support the 2010 European Grand Prix.
Report Feature Race Pastor Maldonado strengthened his championship aspirations after winning a bizarre feature race at Valencia. The Rapax driver got past ART's Jules Bianchi at the start to go into the first corner in second place behind polesitter Sergio Pérez, but a series of accidents behind him eliminated nearly half the field in the first four corners. A safety car was brought out while the mess was cleaned up and just 13 of the 24 cars were still on the track for the restart three laps later, although Ocean's Fabio Leimer and Trident's Adrian Zaugg were also able to rejoin after pitting for repairs. But there was more drama to come before the race returned to green. Maldonado went wide at the final corner and Bianchi, taking advantage of the fact that the safety car line is before the start-finish line, was able to take the Venezuelan by surprise and pass him for second. Bianchi made a successful move on Pérez for the lead not long afterwards, but Davide Valsecchi's attempt to follow him through resulted in contact with Pérez that spun the Addax car and left the Mexican at the back of the field. Valsecchi was later handed a drive-through penalty for his part in the incident. Maldonado piled the pressure on Bianchi until the ART driver ran wide, and then gradually pulled away to secure the win by 8.2s. Bianchi followed him for second and Sam Bird made it an ART 2–3 by finishing third; the Brit having started from 10th on the grid. Giedo van der Garde (Addax) and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) had an uneventful run to fourth and fifth, while Charles Pic (Arden), Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova) and Michael Herck (DPR) chased each other around to complete the points. It was a particularly welcome result for Ericsson, whose efforts finally helped Super Nova to get its first points of the year. There was one more bit of drama awaiting Pérez when he went to leave the pits and found Coloni's Alberto Valerio pulling out ahead of him with the rear jack still attached. It flew off at turn 4, fortunately bouncing out of Pérez's path and instead wiping out a TV camera mounted on the catch fencing.
Sprint Race Marcus Ericsson took his first-ever GP2 win in the sprint race in Valencia. The Swede took the lead at the start by beating pole-sitter Michael Herck into the first corner, but faced a determined challenge from Giedo van der Garde over the last two laps. Despite van der Garde's apparent speed advantage, Ericsson did just enough to keep him at bay. While the win was a welcome change of form for the Super Nova team after a tough start to the season, there is also concern within the squad after Ericsson's teammate Josef Kral was taken to hospital following a huge accident on lap three. The Czech driver ran into the back of Arden's Rodolfo González and was launched skyward before landing on his gearbox and slamming into the Turn 17 barriers at high speed. He was taken to Hospital complaining of pain in his back and right arm, but was found to be unharmed seriously. He would return to GP2 at the last round of the season in Abu Dhabi. The accident prompted several laps behind the safety car, which eventually led to the race being flagged several laps before schedule due to time limitations. Herck held on to third, although he needed to shove Pastor Maldonado aside on the run to the finish line in order to do it, while Charles Pic and Davide Valsecchi scored the final points. Sergio Pérez endured another disastrous race; the Mexican being one of several victims of opening lap damage when he was hit by Alberto Valerio. He lost a lap but found himself out of sequence behind the safety car and spent the middle part of the race running fourth on the road ahead of title rival Maldonado. Pérez had just enough time to produce the fastest lap of the race - by a full second - before he was dealt a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags.
Classification Qualifying PosNoNameTeamTimeGrid14 Sergio Pérez Barwa Addax Team1:45.3371215 Pastor Maldonado Rapax1:45.462231 Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix1:45.6583410 Davide Valsecchi iSport International1:45.898453 Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax Team1:45.9955626 Michael Herck DPR1:46.1176716 Charles Pic Arden International Motorsport1:46.171788 Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering1:46.2638927 Giacomo Ricci DPR1:46.3589102 Sam Bird ART Grand Prix1:46.36210117 Dani Clos Racing Engineering1:46.478111224 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident Racing1:46.504121320 Alberto Valerio Scuderia Coloni1:46.508131414 Luiz Razia Rapax1:46.518141525 Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing1:46.53215169 Oliver Turvey iSport International1:46.63316175 Josef Král Super Nova Racing1:46.709171811 Jérôme d'Ambrosio DAMS1:46.74318196 Marcus Ericsson Super Nova Racing1:46.756242012 Ho-Pin Tung DAMS1:46.780192121 Vladimir Arabadzhiev Scuderia Coloni1:46.868202217 Rodolfo González Arden International Motorsport1:46.953212319 Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology1:47.011222418 Max Chilton Ocean Racing Technology1:47.05423 Notes 1. - Marcus Ericsson received a ten-place grid penalty because of a collision with Adrian Zaugg in Istanbul.
Feature Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 15 Pastor MaldonadoRapax 30 0:56:55.681 2 10 + 1 2 1 Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix 30 +8.296 3 8 3 2 Sam Bird ART Grand Prix 30 +16.094 10 6 4 3 Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax Team 30 +16.788 5 5 5 7 Dani Clos Racing Engineering 30 +38.974 11 4 6 16 Charles Pic Arden International Motorsport 30 +42.415 7 3 7 6 Marcus Ericsson Super Nova Racing 30 +42.914 24 2 8 26 Michael Herck DPR 30 +43.722 6 1 9 20 Alberto Valerio Scuderia Coloni 30 +48.508 13 10 10 Davide Valsecchi iSport International 30 +50.411 4 11 4 Sergio Pérez Barwa Addax Team 30 +51.308 1 2 12 8 Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 30 +55.338 8 13 21 Vladimir Arabadzhiev Scuderia Coloni 29 +1 lap/DNF 20 14 25 Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing 29 +1 lap 15 Ret 19 Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology 25 Retired 22 Ret 27 Giacomo Ricci DPR 0 Accident 9 Ret 24 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident Racing 0 Accident 12 Ret 14 Luiz RaziaRapax 0 Accident 14 Ret 9 Oliver Turvey iSport International 0 Accident 16 Ret 5 Josef Král Super Nova Racing 0 Accident 17 Ret 11 Jérôme d'Ambrosio DAMS 0 Accident 18 Ret 12 Ho-Pin Tung DAMS 0 Accident 19 Ret 17 Rodolfo González Arden International Motorsport 0 Accident 21 Ret 18 Max Chilton Ocean Racing Technology 0 Accident 23
Sprint Race Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 6 Marcus Ericsson Super Nova Racing 22 0:45:33.442 2 6 2 3 Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax Team 22 +0.883 5 5 3 26 Michael Herck DPR 22 +5.120 1 4 4 15 Pastor MaldonadoRapax 22 +5.292 8 3 + 1 5 16 Charles Pic Arden International Motorsport 22 +9.233 3 2 6 10 Davide Valsecchi iSport International 22 +17.778 10 1 7 7 Dani Clos Racing Engineering 22 +18.315 4 8 11 Jérôme d'Ambrosio DAMS 22 +18.910 19 9 21 Vladimir Arabadzhiev Scuderia Coloni 22 +21.318 23 10 2 Sam Bird ART Grand Prix 22 +23.831 6 11 18 Max Chilton Ocean Racing Technology 22 +25.997 22 12 9 Oliver Turvey iSport International 22 +30.387 18 13 12 Ho-Pin Tung DAMS 22 +32.713 20 14 24 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident Racing 22 +33.394 16 15 25 Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing 21 +1 lap 13 16 4 Sergio Pérez Barwa Addax Team 21 +1 lap 11 Ret 14 Luiz Razia Rapax 15 Retired 17 Ret 17 Rodolfo González Arden International Motorsport 1 Retired 21 Ret 5 Josef Král Super Nova Racing 1 Retired 24 Ret 1 Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix 0 Retired 7 Ret 20 Alberto Valerio Scuderia Coloni 0 Retired 9 Ret 8 Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 0 Retired 12 Ret 19 Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology 0 Retired 14 Ret 27 Giacomo Ricci DPR 0 Retired 15
Standings after the round
Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Pastor Maldonado 42 2 Dani Clos 27 3 Giedo van der Garde 27 4 Luiz Razia 20 5 Sergio Pérez 19
Teams' Championship standings Pos Team Points 1 Rapax 62 2 Barwa Addax Team 46 3 ART Grand Prix 36 4 Racing Engineering 29 5 iSport International 20
Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
See also 2010 European Grand Prix 2010 Valencia GP3 Series round
External links
https://web.archive.org/web/20100629230949/http://gp2series.com/Maldonado-sails-to-victory-in.html
References