RACE ONE:

Petrov wins Turkey feature race 

Grosjean takes Barcelona pole

Romain Grosjean will start tomorrow's GP2 Series season-opener at Barcelona from pole position following a strong performance in qualifying this afternoon.

The Barwa Addax driver struck early with his 1m27.510s effort, and the time stood for the remainder of the session.

For several minutes the former Campos team appeared on its way for a one-two before Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi was able to find a clear lap on his second run to put him second on the grid, squeezing out Vitaly Petrov.

"The problem is the traffic," said di Grassi. "I don't know if we have slower rookies this year or what, but it could be a big problem. There could be races where you don't get a clear lap and qualify 16th even though you did nothing wrong. But otherwise, everything feels pretty good, so I think we're looking okay for tomorrow."

Nico Hulkenberg will begin his first GP2 main series race from fourth, the ART rookie lining up alongside FMS driver Andi Zuber.

Super Nova's Luca Filippi was sixth on the timesheets but will drop to ninth on the grid due to his three-place penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags during practice earlier in the day, moving Jerome D'Ambrosio up to sixth alongside Diego Nunes.

The only major casualty came in the final minutes of the session when the Arden car of Sergio Perez swapped ends and pitched itself into the tyre barriers.

Pos Driver                    Team                  Time          Gap

1. Romain Grosjean           Barwa                 1m27.510s  

2. Lucas di Grassi           Racing Engineering    1m27.531s  +0.021  

3. Vitaly Petrov             Barwa                 1m28.027s  +0.517  

4. Nico Hulkenberg           ART                   1m28.088s  +0.578  

5. Andi Zuber                FMS                   1m28.090s  +0.580  

6. Jerome D'Ambrosio         DAMS                  1m28.209s  +0.699 

 7. Diego Nunes               iSport                1m28.253s  +0.743 

 8. Roldan Rodriguez          Piquet                1m28.266s  +0.756 

 9. Luca Filippi              Super Nova            1m28.195s  +0.685

 10. Pastor Maldonado          ART                   1m28.283s  +0.773

 11. Sergio Perez              Arden                 1m28.374s  +0.864 

12. Edoardo Mortara           Arden                 1m28.451s  +0.941 

13. Karun Chandhok            Ocean                 1m28.488s  +0.978 

14. Alvaro Parente            Ocean                 1m28.608s  +1.098 

15. Javier Villa              Super Nova            1m28.381s  +0.871

16. Alberto Valerio           Piquet                1m28.688s  +1.178 

17. Dani Clos                 Racing Engineering    1m28.691s  +1.181 

18. Giedo van der Garde       iSport                1m28.796s  +1.286 

19. Davide Rigon              Trident               1m28.872s  +1.362 

20. Davide Valsecchi          Durango               1m29.164s  +1.654 

21. Luiz Razia                FMS                   1m29.185s  +1.675 

22. Kamui Kobayashi           DAMS                  1m29.350s  +1.840 

23. Giacomo Ricci             DPR                   1m29.524s  +2.014 

24. Nelson Panciatici         Durango               1m29.560s  +2.050 

25. Ricardo Teixeira          Trident               1m31.115s  +3.605 

26. Michael Herck             DPR                   1m31.875s  +4.365

[QUOTE="cjek"]Regarding weather, it now looks set to be a pleasant weekend, especially Sunday, partly cloudy with highs of 22C. Some sources say there's a chance of rain, but most don't. We shall see.Redders1989

Indeed so. The rain in Spain will be falling on the plane instead then.

Maybe this will give us a clear indication of where everyone stands after the updates as well. Roll on the weekend I say :D 

 Round 1: Barcelona

Formula Ones strongest feeder series kicks off once again this weekend in Barcelona. With more than a 3rd of the current F1 drivers starring in GP2, this series is one of the best chances for up and coming racers to prove their worth. 

With 625Bhp engines, no traction control, ground effect and slick tyres, these cars often lap a circuit in the same time as a back-of-the-grid F1 team.

With Quailifying just 24 hours away,  the 10 round Championship gets underway....

Weekend Format:

Friday 

One half our practice session

One half hour Qualifying session (Qualifying is a straight challenge for the fastest time, with the pole sitter being awarded 2 Championship points)

Saturday 

Race 1: Ran over distance of 180Km (or 1 hour 15 minutes, whichever comes first), each driver must make one pitstop in which at least 2 tyres must be changed.

The top 8 finishers in this race score points (10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1), with an extra point being awarded for fastest lap. 

Sunday 

Race 2: The starting order for Race 2 is determined by reversing the top 8 positions from Race 1 (eg the winner of Race 1 will start 8th). There are no pitstops allowed in this race, unless damage to the car or tyres occurs. The top 6 finishers receive point (6,5,4,3,2,1) with the driver setting the fastest lap scoring a point. 

Drivers 

Vitaly Petrov

Romain Grosjean 

Gideo Van der Garde 

Diego Nunes 

Roldan Rodriguez 

Alberto Valerio

Lucas di Grassi 

Pastor Maldonado 

Nice Hulkenberg

Sergio Perez

Dani Clos 

Edoardo Mortara  

Javier Villa 

Luca Fillipi 

Kamui Kobayashi 

Jerome D'Ambrosio 

Ricardo Teixeira 

Andreas Zuber 

Davide Rigon 

Luis Razia 

Davide Valsecchi 

Nelson Panciatici 

Karun Chandhok

Alvaro Parente 

Michael Herck 

Giacomo Ricci 

[QUOTE="The_Gabman"]

[QUOTE="Redders1989"]The beautythat will make Jenson Button World Champion in 2009!Redders1989

Isn't it a bit too early to make that kinda statement :P?

When you have faith like me and TR do, it's never too early :D

pffft.... the championships over already now that Buttons got a car. Just give him the trophy now :)