Racecar driver Max Chilton converts maiden pole to maiden victory

28th July 2012

Max Chilton has claimed his first GP2 win today, leading from pole to flag with a strong, mature drive and soaking up race long pressure to claim victory from title rivals Davide Valsecchi and Luiz Razia.
 
The Englishman made a solid start when the lights went out, with Valsecchi right on his tail into turn one: behind them Razia ran side by side with Jolyon Palmer for the first few corners before latching onto Valsecchi and pushing the Italian for the rest of the lap, allowing Chilton to make a small break and concentrate on the job at hand.
 
Behind them the Lotus teammates were battling hard: Esteban Gutirrez had a small touch with Razia at the first corner and was soon under pressure from James Calado, who dispatched the Mexican on the next lap before heading off after the top three, leaving his teammate looking in his mirrors at the train forming behind him.
 
Pit strategy was always going to be crucial at the tight circuit, and with Gutirrez holding up the guys behind him Felipe Nasr, Palmer and Fabio Leimer came in on lap 11 to jump the queue, forcing those around them to react: Razia, Calado and Giedo van der Garde were in next time by, with Chilton and Valsecchi left with no choice by to pit one lap later.
 
Gutirrez now led the field, ahead of Stefano Coletti, Julian Leal, Simon Trummer, Nigel Melker and Stphane Richelmi (most of who started on the prime tyres, against the rest of the grid starting on super softs), with Chilton and Valsecchi emerging right behind them. The question now was how many of the late stoppers were going to be able to pace the chasing pack and emerge in the points.
 
The top 2 eventually pitted on lap 22, with the hounds in hot pursuit of the remaining front runners. Leal's pace was dropping, and while Trummer squeezed by, Chilton was unable to find a path past the Colombian, with Valsecchi and Razia hounding the Briton all around the track. It was only when Leal peeled into the pits 2 laps later that Chilton was able to drive at his own pace, and dictate the terms.
 
In the closing laps he started losing time to his pursuers, leaving a few anxious moments yet for Carlin as Valsecchi threw everything he had at Chilton, not holding back until out of the final turn when Chilton was greeted by the chequered flag just 0.6 seconds ahead of Valsecchi, with Razia right behind the pair. Calado was next across the line in 4th, four seconds to the good over van der Garde and Palmer in P5 and P6.
 
The fight for the reverse pole was monumental: Josef Kral headed a queue and ran in 7th until suffering a mechanical gremlin a few laps from the end, promoting Nathanal Berthon. Nasr looked to have P8 until he appeared to brake too late and ran into the wall at turn 1, with Gutirrez squeezing by Fabio Leimer to take tomorrow's pole, while Coletti rewarding himself with the final point on offer.
 
Razia's lead in the championship over Valsecchi has now reduced back to 5 points, 186 to 181, while Gutirrez hangs on in third place on 133. Van der Garde now has a one point lead over Calado, 129 to 128, while Chilton's win puts him within touching distance of the pair on 124 points ahead of tomorrow's sprint race.

1.  Max Chilton          Carlin                59m02.965s
2.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                    + 0.628s
3.  Luiz Razia           Arden                   + 1.538s
4.  James Calado         Lotus                   + 4.090s
5.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham                + 8.070s
6.  Jolyon Palmer        iSport                 + 10.805s
7.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering     + 16.236s
8.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus                  + 16.826s
9.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering     + 17.794s
10  Stefano Coletti      Coloni                 + 19.176s
11  Fabio Onidi          Coloni                 + 28.116s
12  Rio Haryanto         Carlin                 + 34.742s
13  Simon Trummer        Arden                  + 35.069s
14  Nigel Melker         Ocean                  + 35.458s
15  Daniel de Jong       Rapax                  + 37.861s
16.  Julian Leal          Trident                + 44.080s
17  Stephane Richelmi    Trident                + 44.267s
18  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax                  + 59.576s
19  Marcus Ericsson      iSport               + 1m04.364s
20  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus              + 1m44.003s
21  Victor Guerin        Ocean                    + 1 lap
22  Sergio Canamasas     Lazarus                  + 1 lap
23  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham                 + 1 lap

DNF

Johnny Cecotto Jr    Addax                    34 laps

Josef Kral           Addax                    33 laps
 
Felipe Nasr          DAMS                      4 laps

 

Click here for the Max Chilton web site - designed and built by Racecar

TAGGED AS :

Audi Sport Quattro SWB for sale

22nd May 2013

Jensen Villiers - order tomorrows cars today

11th May 2013

Racecar launch new Renaultsport site redesign

29th April 2013

Classic Porsche dealer - Hexagon Modern Classics

17th April 2013

New web site for Kimi Raikkonen by Racecar

19th March 2013

Retromobile 2013

7th February 2013

more client news...

Search all Racecar clients

Alphabetically A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T V W

By Category Dealers Motorsport Products Services Miscellaneous