Catalunya Feature RaceWelcome everybody to the 2005 Catalunya Feature Race. Yesterdays Qualifying saw Super Nova lock the front row with Nico Rosberg starting from Pole Position today. With no rain forecast, let´s hope for a good and fair race.
All five lights are on - The race will start any moment now.
And we´re off.
Rosberg and Carroll staid in front, while Lyons and Wurz switched places.
And logically Rosberg drives the fastest lap, as Bruni tries to overtake Monfardini for 5th
Behind them are Wirdheim and Ide as well as the two Camps cars, fighting each other
And oh my god! Bernoldi and Prémat touched!
Both are spinning!
And rejoining last.
First lap done - let´s have a look at the standings.
Wirdheim is challenging Monfardini for 6th!
And he gets through.
And what´s that?! Kovalainen and Vilander touched, both are off track.
Kovalainen rolled back on the field, and Ryan Sharp drove right into him!
Kovalainen lost his rear wing, while Sharp lost his front left wheel! This race seems to be over for both drivers.
Well the Finn is driving on, but still he has to pit.
I nearly forgot about Vilander. Well he´s in last position now.
Back at the top Bruni is challenging Wurz for 4th position.
But we get cut off.
While back here Montagny is challenging Monfardini for 8th.
But he isn´t getting through.
Kovalainen is now pitting.
Rosberg drives the fastest lap.
Only to have it beaten by Bruni right after.
Forget that, Kobayashi drove the fastest lap now.
It seems like Montagny got past Monfardini, who now has to defend his 9th position against Paffett.
And he´s staying in front.
But at the beginning of the new lap Paffett is getting him.
And here we have Toni Vilander, lonely driving in 20th position. Only Kovalainen is behind.
And Bruni challenges Lyons for 3rd position!
Can he make it?
Yes! Bruni is now in 3rd position! Very strong performance until now!
Meanwhile Rosberg is leading the race. Let´s hope if he can finish the race this time.
And Monfardini has to defend his position once more. Gene is the one looking to overtake him this time.
But Monfardini stays in 10th. Still no good performance from him today.
While his teammate Bruni is driving a very strong race so far.
33 laps to go, and Super Nova Racing is still leading the race with a 1 & 2.
Kobayashi has already gotten into 14th position and he is now looking to overtake Piquet Jr. for 13th.
But we get cut off to leading man Nico Rosberg.
Well he didn´t get through, as Piquet is still defending his position.
But Kobayashi isn´t giving up.
And he gets through.
Now López is trying to overtake Piquet as well.
But Piquet is able to defend his position.
Bruni has already gotten 0.6 seconds behind Carroll. Will he be able to get 2nd as well?
Prémat is pitting really early. Is this planned, due to the collision earlier, or a bit of both?
While his teammate is driving in 10th position - only 2 more positions and he will score the first points for his team.
With 30 laps to go, let´s have a look at the standings.
Kobayashi is now challenging Sergio Hernández for 12th!
And Hernández runs a bit too wide, Kobayashi gets through!
He lost some time through that mistake.
Bruni challenges Carroll! Will he get through?
Yes, he does!
Coloni Motorsport driver Gianmaria Bruni is now 2nd after starting 5th.
While Carroll lost a place.
And Lopez is now challenging Hernandez for 14th
But we get cut off again.
Well he´s trying again.
But Hernández defends his position.
And he brakes wrong while getting back to the good side.
Still López can´t benefit from this.
Kamui Kobayashi climbed up to Monfardini! Will he make it?
Yes, he does!
While teammate Lopez is still stuck behind Hernández.
While there are still 24 laps to go, Bruni is 1 second behind Rosberg. Could he be able to get him as well?
And the same try again.
But López just can´t find his way past Hernandez.
And with 22 laps to go, Carroll pits.
As do some other drivers as well
Marc Gene comes out in 16th position after his pit-stop.
But he is driving slow and Vilander overtakes him.
What the? Gene is driving off the track!
And he crashed into the wall and lost his front wheel. That´s the end to his race.
One lap later Wirdheim is pitting
While Rosberg hasn´t pitted yet.
Some other drivers are getting into the pit as well now.
Rosberg is one of them.
Let´s see how long his stop takes.
11.9 seconds. Thats pretty good. And he comes out in 3rd position.
While Bruni fell back to 5th. I think he lost a place.
López now is attacking Piquet once more.
But he can´t find his way through.
Monfardini, who was 1st for one round is coming in now.
And now Vilander comes in as well and Nico Rosberg claims back his 1st position.
And Piquet is attacking López this time!
But López can stay in front.
With everyone having pitted once, let´s have a look at the standings again.
Alexandre Prémat is 14th after his very early pit stop, 2 seconds in front of Hernández
Kovalainen opens the third and probably last round of pit-stops.
And here is the confirmation of what I said earlier: Bruni fell back behind Adam Carroll.
But Bruni is trying to overtake him!
I don´t think he´ll make it...
Well... we have to wait to see the results, as the regie cut off to Nico Rosberg once more.
López and Kobayashi made really good progress in this race: While López came from 20th to 10th, Kobayashi emerged
from 21st to 9th. One more position and he is in the points!
Oh, but whats that? López is running way too wide!
How many positions will he loose?
This is looking close!
Nothing happened, but now Hernandez is trying to overtake him is well!
And he´s through! López is now stuck behind is old friend Hernández. Seems like he missed him...
And he is right away trying to overtake him again.
Could this be it?!
He passed him! López was able to overtake Hernández with no problem, after beeing stuck behind him for nearly half
of the race!
Meanwhile Bruni is still stuck behind Carroll. 16 laps to go - who will get 2nd?
Or first, if Rosberg´s engine blows up again...
Bruni is trying it.
But Carroll stays in front.
Meanwhile Montagny is driving in 12th position... And if I see it right Prémat is trying to overtake him.
He is, and it seems like he is getting through.
Prémat got through. He is now back in the position he started.
But he pits!
Well then, let´s have a look at the standings again.
And Carroll has to defend his position against Bruni again.
And this is close!
But... what of it, we´re cut off again.
After all it seems like we didn´t miss an overtake.
Will we see it this time?
No, Bruni stays behind. Profiteur of this situation is Lyons, who is only 0.6 seconds off Bruni.
While back here Robert Doornbos is challenging Hernández for 14th.
And he got through.
And Alexandré Prémat is driving the fastest lap! Well he has the freshest tyres and noone in front of him, so he could get at least this one point.
But back to the battle between Bruni and Carroll - A battle for 8 points.
Well Carroll is still able to defend his position.
And now Hernández is running wide!
He gets back at position 17. Even though he couldn´t have scored points, it still puts him in a bad light.
Prémat is meanwhile driving another fastest lap. He really wants this one point.
He wants it like nothing else it seems.
Gianmaria Bruni is trying it again.
But Adam Carroll is doing his job really good
Rosberg meanwhile is driving 6.6 seconds infront of Carroll. He will pretty surely win this race.
7 laps to go, let´s have another look at the standings.
Bruni is trying again.
But he again is not getting through.
While in the back Yuji Ide is trying to overtake his teammate.
But it seems like Wirdheim staid in front, while Bruni is once more trying to overtake Rosberg.
Yuji Ide is trying it again as well.
And Carroll is braking wrong!
But I think he didn´t get through.
Indeed, he didn´t. But Yuji Ide passed Wirdheim!
4 laps to go. Carroll made a mistake in the last lap, is he getting nervous? Bruni is after all trying it again and again.
But he is still not getting through.
He won´t give up that easily
Neither does Carroll.
But Carroll is braking wrong again, while Richard Lyons now closed the gap.
And while Carroll again has to defend his position, Ide overtook Alexander Wurz!
And Carroll again managed to defend his position. Only 2 laps to go.
And Kamui Kobayashi is challenging Paffett for 8th! If he gets past him, he will start from pole tomorrow, after
starting in the last row today!
And he got through! Awesome performance by young japanese Kamui Kobayashi!
Oh, and Carroll was braking wrong again, and Bruni overtook him!
Gianmaria Bruni finally got past him into 2nd position. Very sad for Super Nova Racing, but awesome for Coloni Motorsport!
And what´s that?! Toni Vilanders car is smoking. Or is it water?
Whatever it was, it leads to him beeing out of the race now.
Nico Rosberg meanwhile enters the last lap.
And it seems like Paffett got past Kobayashi again! Who will start from pole tomorrow?
Only a few turns more and Nico Rosberg wins his first GP2-Series race after not finishing in both Imola races.
Not far to go...
And Nico Rosberg wins the first race of Catalunya! Congratulations!
Gianmaria Bruni comes in 2nd, after an awesome battle against Carroll for most of the race.
Adam Carroll gets 3rd. Even though 2nd position was in, still a good result for him and Super Nova Racing.
Richard Lyons is 4th, while Yuji Ide comes in 5th.
i
Wurz comes in in 6th postion, after driving a silend race.
Wirdheim comes in 7th. Again both ART Williams cars are getting points.
And Gary Paffett comes in 8th. He will start from pole in tomorrows sprint race.
Kobayashi sadly only managed 9th. Still he showed a great performance.