01/2011 MAGAZINE ROOKIES ON THE CHARGE, VETERANS ON THE HUNT VENTURINI BEATS FILIPPI IN RACE 1, ONIDI DOMINATES RACE 2 TAMBAY: “THE TITLE IS MY ONLY AIM” RACERACE REPORT REPORT - -BRNO MONZA FLAG TO FLAG WINS FOR VENTURINI AND ONIDI Round 01 This went to Fabio Onidi’s advantage, as dangerously, so the Race Direction called Giovanni Venturini had a nearly perfect the Lazarus driver took P3 in front of the Gravity-Charouz Dams car into the weekend in Monza: after being the Luca Filippi, Sergei Afanasiev and pits to solve the issue, with team opting quickest in the First Practice and grabbing Samuele Buttarelli. Fabio had a great for a retirement as a repair was not pole position a few hours later, the Griffitz chance of clinching a podium finish and possible. Durango driver took a dominating win in opted for an early pit-stop strategy: This meant 2nd place for Filippi, behind Race 1, managing the race like a veteran unluckily he lost a lot of time because of Venturini and ahead of a very consistent despite being a rookie in the a stuck wheelnut, and this ruined his race, Buttarelli: the TP Formula driver was very Championship. dropping 3rd place into Filippi’s hands. cautious at the start, but he turned into The first lap was very exciting, mainly The SuperNova driver sticked himself to “attack mode” at half distance, passing thanks to Adrien Tambay; the Frenchman Tambay’s tail, Adrien still boasting an Afanasiev and grabbing P3. The was very quick off the line and got impressive pace despite the damaged mandatory pit-stop didn’t change the besides Venturini trying to pass him on wing. Anyway, the upper flap was moving positions in the top three, and even if in the outside at the First the closing stages Filippi pushed as Chicane. Unfortunately, he much as he could, clinching the missed the apex and cut fastest lap of the race on a the runoff area. In order to qualifying pace, Venturini controlled avoid a penalty he slowed his rival’s comeback, taking the down and gave the checkered flag in 1st place. position back to Venturini, Giovanni Venturini: “It’s really but he did so near the difficult to explain how do I feel now braking zone for the – Venturini said - winning on my second chicane, while debut and in my home race is a Crestani was coming great feeling. I want to say thank quickly from behind: the you to my team, as they gave me a Italian driver couldn’t avoid stunning car: from my side I just did the impact, damaging the a very good race, managing the nose of his car and the pressure from Luca in the best rear wing of Tambay’s. possible way”. 2 WHO’S THE LEADER ROUND 01 1. Giovanni Venturini - Griffitz Durango 16 laps in 26’43”146 2. Luca Filippi - Supernova Racing + 1”184 3. Samuele Buttarelli - TP Formula +5”688 4. Sergi Afanasiev - Dams +11”130 5. Kevin Ceccon - Ombra Racing +15”870 6. Marco Barba - Campos Racing +16”883 7. Pasquale Di Sabatino - Ombra Racing +22”474 8. Fabio Onidi - Lazarus +27”425 9. Bruno Mendez - Campos Racing +30”036 10. Francesco Dracone - Emmebi Motorsport +53”376 ROUND 02 1. Fabio Onidi Lazarus 13 laps in 21’15”981 2. Adrien Tambay - Gravity-Charouz Dams + 3”076 3. Kevin Ceccon - Ombra Racing +3”927 4. Marco Barba - Campos Racing +4”467 5. Giovanni Venturini - Griffitz Durango +5”427 6. Luca Filippi - Supernova Racing +6”984 7. Adrian Zaugg - Supernova Racing +7”680 IT’S CLOSE FOR 8. Samuele Buttarelli - TP Formula +12”218 THE UNDERS DRIVERS CLASSIFICATION 1. Venturini 32 points If in Monza the Series’ rookies did 2. Filippi 23 points well enough to take the top spots 3. Onidi 22 points of the overall classification, they 4. Ceccon 20 points had also the special Under 21 5. Buttarelli and Barba 16 points Trophy to care about. Thanks to 7. Tambay 13 points his pole position and his win in 8. Afanasiev 12 points Race 1 Venturini leads the 9. Di Sabatino 6 points standings, but the group is really 10. Zaugg 3 points Race 2 podium with Tambay, Onidi and Ceccon tight-packed: with a third and a second place finish among the Round 02 Onidi, putting some pressure on him during unders Ceccon follows just 8 points adrift, while Buttarelli If in the first race the Auto GP youngsters did the first laps of the race. Then he had to back thanks to his stunning podium send a clear message taking two steps of the off to preserve his tyres, with Ceccon very finish in Race 1 lies third ahead of podium, on Sunday it was Fabio Onidi who close to his tail. The Italian driver was the only Tambay, Mendez and Haryanto. one to start on new rubber and he made the Given that the prize for the winner gave them the right answer on behalf of the is a GP2 test, you can be sure veteran drivers: Fabio clinched an impressive most of the extra grip passing Barba at the that the fight will be hot win, keeping first place from flag to flag. He start: then, when he realized that he didn’t throughout the whole season! had a very good start from pole position (as have a real chance to pass Tambay he settled 1. Venturini 36 points he often does) and then steadily increased his for 3rd, showing a very cool mind for a rookie. 2. Ceccon 28 points advantage; only during the first laps his lead Barba was in a very similar situation, as he 3. Buttarelli 26 points was threatened by an aggressive Adrien followed the Ombra car very closely, ending 4. Tambay 18 points Tambay, but lap after lap Onidi stretched the the race just half a second adrift from Ceccon 5. Mendez 16 points 7. Haryanto 6 points gap, eventually crossing the line with three and showing a great improvement in seconds on the Frenchman. In doing this, performance for the Campos Racing car. Onidi also climbed to the 3rd position in the “I could have fought for a podium finish also championship standings. yesterday without some bad luck - Onidi said Behind Onidi, Tambay was second but the - so this win is really good for me. I have to real gem of his race was the start: Adrien was say thanks to the team because the car was P12 on the grid but he was really quick off the really good: I was able to manage the line and chose to stay on the outside in order pressure from Adrien quite easily in the first to pass a bunch of opponents, then taking the laps, and then I had a very quick pace. We inside again to pass Marco Barba and Kevin leave Monza 3rd in the standings, and even if Ceccon while braking for the first corner. With it could have been even better, it’s a very this stunning move he managed to close on good start”. Samuele Buttarelli 3 RACE REPORT - MONZA The final move of Tambay's great start NARROW LEAD FOR GRIFFITZ DURANGO hanks to Venturini’s staggering shape Griffitz of the strongest pairings of the grid, the team has Durango took the lead of the Teams Standings what it takes to charge back right from the Budapest Tafter the Monza event, but the competition is round of the Series. The same goes for Campos very close. While Giovanni was the only driver to Racing: after a tough start the Spanish team got it score points for the outfit managed by Ivone Pinton, right with Barba in Race 2, and fielding three cars SuperNova, Ombra and DAMS had two men in the remains one of the favouites for the Teams Title. points in at least one of the two races, meaning that they didn’t allow their Italian rivals to stretch the gap. TEAM STANDINGS Consistent performances from Filippi and Zaugg, Ceccon and Di Sabatino, Tambay and Afanasiev were 1. Griffit z D urango 32 point s the key to such an outcome, while Lazarus managed 2. SuperNova and O mbra 26 point s to keep a reasonable gap despite a very unlucky weekend: considering that Onidi and Crestani are one 4. D ams 25 point s 5. L azarus 22 point s 6. Campos Racing 18 point s 2nd place for SuperNova 7. T P Formula 16 point s in Race 1 8. Emmebi Motorsport 1 point TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN The Auto GP opening round saw also the first prize money allocation of the season, with 100.000 euros up for grabs. With pole position, a race win and a 5th place Giovanni Venturini was the unchallenged winner of the event, grabbing 60.000 euros for Griffitz Durango. SuperNova took 25.000 euros thanks to Filippi’s 2nd place in Race 1 and his points finish on Sunday, beating Onidi by just 1 point. With his win in Race 2 the driver from Milan managed to overcome Saturday’s bad luck, bringing 15.000 euros in the Lazarus’ safe. Thanks to this wins, teams and drivers will be able to compensate part of the season costs, 4 making Auto GP an even more attractive package. GET WELL SOON ADRIAN A crash at the end of the second Free Practice meant the end of the Auto GP weekend and a long stop for Adrian Campos Jr. The car driven by the Spaniard left the track at high speed at the exit of the Ascari complex, and the impact with the tyre wall was very hard.