2010 Hungarian GP2 round
Encyclopedia
The 2010 Hungarian GP2 round was a GP2 Series
motor race held on July 31 and August 1, 2010 at Hungaroring
in Budapest
, Hungary
. It was the seventh round of the 2010 GP2 Season and the sixth round of the 2010 GP3 Season. The race was used to support the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix
. In the GP3 series, Nico Muller
took the Race 1 victory, ahead of runaway championship leader Esteban Gutierrez
. American Alexander Rossi
took his second win of the year in Race 2.
took the GP2 Series feature race win at the Hungaroring to take his fifth feature race victory in succession, extending his record. Maldonado crossed the line 5.8s clear of Racing Engineering
rookie Christian Vietoris
, but a lot of the hard work was done for him at the start when both of the front-row qualifiers failed to get away from the grid. iSport's
Davide Valsecchi
was the first victim when his car stopped on the dummy grid, prompting a formation lap. The cars had barely finished forming up for the second time when pole-sitter Sam Bird
waved his arms in the air, forcing him to join Valsecchi and fellow grid-staller Adrian Zaugg
of Trident
in starting from the pit exit. That effectively gave iSport's Oliver Turvey
and Maldonado a front-row start, and when Turvey made a poor getaway Maldonado was gifted with a virtually unchallenged run into the first corner. The race was interrupted yet again when ART's
Jules Bianchi
went wide on the exit of Turn 2, lost control, and spun back into the pack. He tagged Racing Engineering's Dani Clos
, who was able to continue, but was then flicked around and was hit head-on by DAMS'
Ho-Pin Tung
, who in turn was rear-ended by Arden's
Rodolfo Gonzalez
. The accident triggered a lengthy red flag period while Tung was extracted from his car and airlifted to hospital, while Bianchi was taken to the circuit medical centre. Initial reports were that neither driver was seriously hurt, yet Bianchi was later said to have back pains, makinghim doubtful for the Belgian round. Maldonado was again swiftly in control when the race restarted and had built up a substantial gap when the safety car was brought out following a clash between Coloni's Alberto Valerio
and Rapax's Luiz Razia
that ended with Valerio stranded at the final corner. Luck was on Maldonado's side though, as he had the lapped car of Vladimir Arabadzhiev between he and Vietoris, and an awful restart from the Bulgarian allowed Maldonado to pull out more than 3.0s on the first lap back under greens. From there, the win was a formality. Vietoris had to work hard for second, the German spending virtually the entire race under pressure from Addax's Sergio Pérez
, with Turvey also joining the fight in the final laps. Perez's team-mate Giedo van der Garde
took fifth ahead of DAMS's Jerome d'Ambrosio
, the Belgian back in the car after missing the Hockenheim round, while DPR
locked out the front row for the sprint race with Michael Herck
and Giacomo Ricci
taking seventh and eighth respectively.
took his first victory in the GP2 main series in the sprint race at the Hungaroring
. The Italian started from pole and had the front row to himself after team-mate Michael Herck stalled on the dummy grid. He was challenged into the first corner by DAMS' Jerome d'Ambrosio, but once he had seen that off he was able to cruise to the flag to secure DPR's first main series win since Oliver Pla's victory in Germany in 2005. D'Ambrosio had no answer to Ricci's pace, but the Belgian still looked good for second until his car developed a problem and he was forced to retire mid-way through the race. That opened the door for Racing Engineering's Christian Vietoris to claim second place, the German having done a great job after starting from seventh on the grid, while iSport's Davide Valsecchi
made a nice move down the inside of Giedo van der Garde (Addax) to secure third with three laps to go. Oliver Turvey finished fifth for iSport ahead of Super Nova's
Luca Filippi
, the Italian taking his first point since returning to the series at Silverstone. It was a tough race for the main title protagonists. Pastor Maldonado (Rapax) was black-flagged on lap seven for ignoring a black and orange warning flag after breaking his front wing, while Addax's Sergio Pérez eliminated himself when an attempt to pass Valsecchi for fifth on the second lap resulted in contact
.
GP2 Series
The GP2 Series, GP2 for short, is a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecclestone also has the rights to the name GP1...
motor race held on July 31 and August 1, 2010 at Hungaroring
Hungaroring
The Hungaroring is a racing circuit in Mogyoród, near Budapest, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtain. Bernie Ecclestone wanted a race in the USSR, but a Hungarian friend of his...
in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. It was the seventh round of the 2010 GP2 Season and the sixth round of the 2010 GP3 Season. The race was used to support the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix
2010 Hungarian Grand Prix
The 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix was the twelfth round of the 2010 Formula One season. It was held in Hungaroring, Hungary on August 1, 2010...
. In the GP3 series, Nico Muller
Nico Müller
Nico Müller is a professional racing driver from Switzerland.-Karting:Müller began his karting career in 2004 and the following year, Müller finished sixth in the Bridgestone Cup Switzerland ICA Junior class. He improved to third place in the same competition in 2006 and also finished as runner-up...
took the Race 1 victory, ahead of runaway championship leader Esteban Gutierrez
Esteban Gutiérrez
Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez is a Mexican race car driver. He is the reigning GP3 Champion, having won the title in the series' inaugural 2010 season...
. American Alexander Rossi
Alexander Rossi
Alexander Mark Rossi was a successful British artist specializing in genre works who flourished in the late 19th century....
took his second win of the year in Race 2.
Feature Race
Pastor MaldonadoPastor Maldonado
Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta is a Venezuelan Formula One driver. Before making his Formula One debut in 2011, he won the 2010 GP2 championship.-Formula Renault:...
took the GP2 Series feature race win at the Hungaroring to take his fifth feature race victory in succession, extending his record. Maldonado crossed the line 5.8s clear of Racing Engineering
Racing Engineering
Racing Engineering is a Spanish racing team founded in 1999 by Alfonso de Orléans-Borbón. The team's headquarters are located in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near Jerez, in a state-of-the-art factory, where all car preparation and race team organization is based....
rookie Christian Vietoris
Christian Vietoris
Christian Vietoris is a German racing driver.-Karting:Vietoris started his career through karting, the most common entry point and all racing drivers, in 1994...
, but a lot of the hard work was done for him at the start when both of the front-row qualifiers failed to get away from the grid. iSport's
ISport International
iSport International is a British championship winning motor racing team that competes in the GP2 Series and GP2 Asia Series, the official feeder series for Formula One. It was founded in 2004.- Overview :...
Davide Valsecchi
Davide Valsecchi
-Formula Renault:Valsecchi drove in Renault-based series from 2003 to 2007, rising from Italian Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup to the more powerful cars of the World Series by Renault in 2006...
was the first victim when his car stopped on the dummy grid, prompting a formation lap. The cars had barely finished forming up for the second time when pole-sitter Sam Bird
Sam Bird
Sam Bird is a British racing driver; he was educated at Millfield School in Somerset.-Formula BMW:Bird made his name in single seater racing in the Formula BMW category, coming fourteenth overall in his debut season and second in the rookie cup...
waved his arms in the air, forcing him to join Valsecchi and fellow grid-staller Adrian Zaugg
Adrian Zaugg
Adrian Zaugg is a South African race car driver.-Complete A1 Grand Prix results: -Complete GP2 Series results:...
of Trident
Trident Racing
Trident Racing is a motor racing team that competes in single seater formula racing. It was founded in 2006 in order to compete in the GP2 championship, which is Europe's highest-ranking single-seater formula below Formula One. GP2 functions as an official support championship to Formula One and...
in starting from the pit exit. That effectively gave iSport's Oliver Turvey
Oliver Turvey
Oliver Jonathan Turvey is a British racing driver. He was a notable kart racer, with two national titles, and was the 2006 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner. His career has been supported by the Racing Steps Foundation....
and Maldonado a front-row start, and when Turvey made a poor getaway Maldonado was gifted with a virtually unchallenged run into the first corner. The race was interrupted yet again when ART's
ART Grand Prix
Lotus ART is a French motor racing team that competes in formula single-seaters in Europe. It was founded as ART Grand Prix in 1991.-Creation:...
Jules Bianchi
Jules Bianchi
Jules Bianchi is a French racing driver.-Family:Jules is the grandson of Mauro Bianchi, three-times World Champion in the GT category, and the grandnephew of Lucien, who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans and competed in nineteen Grands Prix in the Formula One World Championship between and , with a...
went wide on the exit of Turn 2, lost control, and spun back into the pack. He tagged Racing Engineering's Dani Clos
Dani Clos
Daniel Clos Álvarez is a Spanish racing driver who is competing in the GP2 Series with Racing Engineering, the team that won the drivers' championship with Giorgio Pantano in 2008.-Karting:...
, who was able to continue, but was then flicked around and was hit head-on by DAMS'
DAMS
Driot-Arnoux Motorsport is a racing team from France, involved in many areas of motorsports. DAMS was founded in 1988 by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula One driver René Arnoux. It is headquartered near Le Mans, only 2 km from the Bugatti Circuit.- History :The year after its foundation,...
Ho-Pin Tung
Ho-Pin Tung
Ho-Pin Tung is a Chinese-Dutch auto-racing driver who races with a Chinese license.-Career:Tung started kart racing in the Netherlands in 1997 before graduating to single-seaters. He won the 2003 Formula BMW Asia series and was rewarded with a test drive with the Williams F1 team.In 2004 he joined...
, who in turn was rear-ended by Arden's
Arden International
Arden International is an GP2 Series team, created by Christian Horner.Initially created to raise up Horner's career, and then reliant on sponsorship from Viktor Maslov, the team began to get good results and was the best team of Formula 3000 in its last years, showing new talents to motorsport...
Rodolfo Gonzalez
Rodolfo González
Rodolfo González is a Venezuelan racing driver.- Formula Renault :After previously competing in karting, González raced in the 2003 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Winter Series, before racing in the main series in 2004 and 2005 while attending City College Norwich.- Formula Three :He won the British F3...
. The accident triggered a lengthy red flag period while Tung was extracted from his car and airlifted to hospital, while Bianchi was taken to the circuit medical centre. Initial reports were that neither driver was seriously hurt, yet Bianchi was later said to have back pains, makinghim doubtful for the Belgian round. Maldonado was again swiftly in control when the race restarted and had built up a substantial gap when the safety car was brought out following a clash between Coloni's Alberto Valerio
Alberto Valerio
-Formula Three:Valerio drove in the Formula Three Sudamericana championship from 2003 to 2005, winning the title in his final year of the category. For 2006 he moved to the British championship, finishing 11th in the championship...
and Rapax's Luiz Razia
Luiz Razia
Luiz Tadeu Razia Filho is a Brazilian racing driver.-Early career:Razia began his single seater career in 2005 in the South American Formula 3 championship. Driving for Dragão Motorsport, Razia finished sixth in the championship taking six podium finishes, including two race wins...
that ended with Valerio stranded at the final corner. Luck was on Maldonado's side though, as he had the lapped car of Vladimir Arabadzhiev between he and Vietoris, and an awful restart from the Bulgarian allowed Maldonado to pull out more than 3.0s on the first lap back under greens. From there, the win was a formality. Vietoris had to work hard for second, the German spending virtually the entire race under pressure from Addax's Sergio Pérez
Sergio Pérez
Sergio Pérez Mendoza , also known as "Checo" Pérez, is a Mexican racing driver of Spanish descent, currently racing for Sauber in the 2011 Formula One season...
, with Turvey also joining the fight in the final laps. Perez's team-mate Giedo van der Garde
Giedo van der Garde
Giedo van der Garde is a Dutch racing driver.-Karting:Van der Garde has a successful karting career, winning the Dutch championship in 1998...
took fifth ahead of DAMS's Jerome d'Ambrosio
Jérôme d'Ambrosio
Jérôme d'Ambrosio is a Belgian racing driver of Italian descent. He is driving for Marussia Virgin Racing during the 2011 Formula One World Championship.-Karting:...
, the Belgian back in the car after missing the Hockenheim round, while DPR
David Price Racing
David Price Racing is a British motor racing team, founded by David Price. They have competed in various forms of motorsport since their foundation in 1976...
locked out the front row for the sprint race with Michael Herck
Michael Herck
Michael Herck is a Belgian-Romanian race car driver. He currently drives for the Scuderia Coloni team in the GP2 Series.-Early life:...
and Giacomo Ricci
Giacomo Ricci
-Formula BMW:Ricci began his car racing career by driving in the German-based Formula BMW ADAC series in 2001 and 2002, with a best finish of seventh in the drivers' championship.-Formula Renault:...
taking seventh and eighth respectively.
Sprint Race
DPR's Giacomo RicciGiacomo Ricci
-Formula BMW:Ricci began his car racing career by driving in the German-based Formula BMW ADAC series in 2001 and 2002, with a best finish of seventh in the drivers' championship.-Formula Renault:...
took his first victory in the GP2 main series in the sprint race at the Hungaroring
Hungaroring
The Hungaroring is a racing circuit in Mogyoród, near Budapest, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtain. Bernie Ecclestone wanted a race in the USSR, but a Hungarian friend of his...
. The Italian started from pole and had the front row to himself after team-mate Michael Herck stalled on the dummy grid. He was challenged into the first corner by DAMS' Jerome d'Ambrosio, but once he had seen that off he was able to cruise to the flag to secure DPR's first main series win since Oliver Pla's victory in Germany in 2005. D'Ambrosio had no answer to Ricci's pace, but the Belgian still looked good for second until his car developed a problem and he was forced to retire mid-way through the race. That opened the door for Racing Engineering's Christian Vietoris to claim second place, the German having done a great job after starting from seventh on the grid, while iSport's Davide Valsecchi
Davide Valsecchi
-Formula Renault:Valsecchi drove in Renault-based series from 2003 to 2007, rising from Italian Formula Renault and the Formula Renault Eurocup to the more powerful cars of the World Series by Renault in 2006...
made a nice move down the inside of Giedo van der Garde (Addax) to secure third with three laps to go. Oliver Turvey finished fifth for iSport ahead of Super Nova's
Super Nova Racing
Super Nova Racing is a British racing team that has competed in Formula 3000/GP2 and the A1 Grand Prix series. Super Nova first entered racing in 1991...
Luca Filippi
Luca Filippi
Luca Filippi is a racing driver who competes in single seaters in Europe.-Formula Renault:Filippi made the step out of karting in 2003, competing in Formula Renault 2.0 Italia, where he finished third in 2004 behind Pastor Maldonado and Kohei Hirate.-Formula 3000:Filippi stepped up to the Italian...
, the Italian taking his first point since returning to the series at Silverstone. It was a tough race for the main title protagonists. Pastor Maldonado (Rapax) was black-flagged on lap seven for ignoring a black and orange warning flag after breaking his front wing, while Addax's Sergio Pérez eliminated himself when an attempt to pass Valsecchi for fifth on the second lap resulted in contact
.