Repsol YPF
Ruta
Victory in Turkey and the lead for Giorgio Pantano
Giorgio Pantano is the new leader of the GP2 Series after his victory in the race disputed on Saturday evening at the Circuit of Istanbul, and the fourth position he got on Sunday`s shorter race. For Javier Villa, the Turkish GP was not too positive, because on the Saturday he had to be satisfied with the seventh position and in Sunday`s race he was not able to improve his finishing position. The Repsol driver went off the track when a rival tried to overtake him, and at no time did he feel comfortable at the wheel of his car.
RACE 1
When the race began Giorgio Pantano went into the lead at the circuit of Istanbul. Starting in pole position the Repsol driver began to control the race with authority and after the first pit-stop he already had an advantage of over one second. Lap after lap he extended his lead, seven seconds after ten laps. Javier Villa, who started from eighth position, was able to move up two positions on the first lap and he began to fight with Petrov for fifth place.
The Repsol driver made his obligatory pit-stop on lap eleven, he found himself caught up in traffic when he returned to the track though. In order to avoid a collision with Maldonado Villa had to delay his return to the Turkish track, losing two positions. The classification did not change until lap 24 when Valerio span, the Safety Car had to come out. Pantano took advantage of the incident to change his tyres, just like hts rivals, but the fast Racing Engineering mechanics let him return to the track in the lead. On lap 28 the safety car went in and the Repsol driver continued to control the race. Once again, Panatano set a pace that no rival was able to equal. He therefore got his first victory of the season and the lead in the overall classification.
Javier Villa was sixth when the Safety Car came out, but when it started again he left some space on a turn, and with cold tyres he was overtaken by Buemi and Carroll. The Repsol driver did not give up and he immediately began to put pressure on Carroll, passing him at the end of the lap moving into seventh place the position he was in when he eventually crossed the finishing line.
RACE 2
In Sunday`s race, Giorgio Pantano, made a great start from eighth position and moved up to fifth at the end of the first lap. Javier Villa however, lost a position at the end of a straight, and was third. Once again, the different incidents on the first lap obliged the Safety Car to come out. When the race started again after three laps Javier Villa, who was trying to catch Buemi, saw how Romain Grosjean, in the end the winner of the race overtook him.
On the fifth lap Villa was able to pass Grosjean but he immediately fought back and Villa was also overtaken by his teammate Giorgio Pantano. On the eighth lap Conway also overtook the Spaniard, and so he began to fight for sixth position with Chandhok. Nevertheless, bad luck affected the Repsol driver since on the following lap Chandhok attempted to pass Villa this manoeuvre ended up with the two off the track. Villa lost several positions, and in his attempt to recover he span and fell back to seventeenth position.
Meanwhile, at the front Giorgio Pantano was fourth and chasing Buemi. The safety car had to come back out on lap 12 when two dogs got onto the track and Senna struck one of them. The animal was not injured but the Brazilian´s car was damaged. The race started two laps later, with Marsh still chasing Buemi. In spite of getting close to him on several occasions the Repsol driver decided to take things easily and increase his points haul in the general – he finished fourth. Javier Villa was in the end able to climb up to 15th position.
