Monza sees Filippi Secure Home Victory.

Luca Filippi delighted the Monza crowd as he brought home his Scuderia Coloni car home first to secure a home victory for him and the team. Filippi, one of five drivers in contention for the Vice Champion position blew past Pole sitter Charles Pic (Barwa Addax Team) to lead home the Frenchman and the 2011 GP2 Champion, Romain Grosjean (Dams).

Filippi made the best start as the lights went out as Pic was unable to take advantage of the clean side of the grid, and he had to fend off the attentions of Alvaro Parente (Carlin), Grosjean, Adam Carroll (Super Nova Racing) and Fabio Leimer (Rapax) as they made their way down to the first chicane.

The Italian driver saw setting the pace as he set a string of fastest laps, knowing that the best way to secure a home victory was to open up as big a gap as possible, while Pic continued to look in his mirrors as a train of GP2 rivals built up behind him.

Pic, Grosjean, Carroll, Leimer and Sam Bird (iSport International) all pitted together on lap twelve, and the fast recovering Bird made up another two positions during the pit stops, and this became three when Parente was given a drive through penalty for an unsafe release.

Two laps later and Filippi pitted to cover the earlier stops and he came out ahead of his rivals. He soon set about chasing down the fastest lap of the race to help with his quest of securing the Vice Champion honours and with five laps remaining, he secured the fastest lap of the race, despite the best efforts of Grosjean behind.

When the flag was dropped to mark the end of the race, the grandstand erupted with joy as they celebrated a home victory for Filippi, his first home victory in GP2. Pic held off Grosjean by 0.6s at the flag to secure second. Bird made the most of his race as he recovered from ninth to fourth. Carroll finished fifth, ahead of Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering), Leimer and Jules Bianchi (Lotus ART) – the latter securing Pole Position for tomorrow’s sprint race ahead of the Vice Champion showdown.

Four drivers head into the final race of the season with a chance of finishing second behind Champion Grosjean. Pic leads the way with 52 points, with Filippi a single point behind. Bianchi and Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax Team) head into the sprint race tomorrow two points behind Filippi.

Barwa Addax Team has all but wrapped up the honours in the Teams’ Championship as they sit on 101 points to the 89 points of Dams.

Monza GP2 Feature Race Result:

Position	Driver	Team
1	Luca Filippi	Scuderia Coloni
2	Charles Pic	Barwa Addax Team
3	Romain Grosjean	Dams
4	Sam Bird	iSport International
5	Adam Carroll	Super Nova Racing
6	Christian Vietoris	Racing Engineering
7	Fabio Leimer	Rapax
8	Jules Bianchi	Lotus ART
9	Esteban Gutierrez	Lotus ART
10	Luiz Razia	Caterham Team AirAsia
11	Pal Varhaug	Dams
12	Alvaro Parente	Carlin
13	Dani Clos	Racing Engineering
14	Marcus Ericsson	iSport International
15	Stephane Richelmi	Trident Racing
16	Julian Leal	Rapax
17	Johnny Cecotto	Ocean Racing Technology
18	Fairuz Fauzy	Super Nova Racing
19	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Trident Racing
20	Davide Valsecchi	Caterham Team AirAsia
21	Giedo van der Garde	Barwa Addax Team
22	Brendon Hartley	Ocean Racing Technology
DNF	Max Chilton	Carlin
DNF	Josef Kral	Arden International
DNF	Jolyon Palmer	Arden International
DNF	Michael Herck	Scuderia Coloni

Quaife-Hobbs Secures Monza Pole Position.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (Marussia Manor Racing) has secured his second Pole Position of the 2011 GP3 Series during the final qualifying session of the season at Autodromo Nazionale Monza this morning.

British driver Quaife-Hobbs heads into the weekend with an outside chance of the crown and he set the fastest time of the session in the closing seconds, denying Nico Muller (Jenzer Motorsport) a maiden pole position in the category.

When the lights went out, all thirty cars went out onto the circuit on their slick Pirelli tyres for the early morning qualifying session. Early pace setter was Rio Haryanto (Marussia Manor Racing) and apart from a brief spell during the first part of the session when Championship leader Valtteri Bottas (Lotus ART), the Indonesian led the way.

Another one of the Championship contenders, Alexander Sims (Status Grand Prix) was the first driver to better the time set by Haryanto, lapping the Monza circuit 0.050s quicker than the Manor driver. Soon enough, Bottas and Haryanto demoted the British driver down the order.

Midway through the session, Bottas had moved back to the top of the times before the field visited the pits for a tyre change and with it, a last chance of securing top spot – it would all come down to which driver could secure the tow around the Italian speedbowl.

As the session was drawing to a close, it was Haryanto who was looking strong at the top of the times, before Muller went quicker on his final flying lap. Muller looked to have Pole Position sewn up as the rest of the field was unable to match his pace, until Quaife-Hobbs put together the perfect lap to snatch Pole from Muller.

Muller finished second, ahead of Haryanto, Mitch Evans (MW Arden) and the Lotus ART Duo of Bottas and James Calado. Sims lines up eleventh and Nigel Melker (RSC Mucke Motorsport) thirteenth.

Monza GP3 Qualifying Result:

Position	Number	Driver	Team
1	10	A. Quaife-Hobbs	Marussia Manor Racing
2	7	N. Muller	Jenzer Motorsport
3	11	R. Haryanto	Marussia Manor Racing
4	26	M. Evans	MW Arden
5	2	V. Bottas	Lotus ART
6	3	J. Calado	Lotus ART
7	27	S. Trummer	MW Arden
8	30	M. Christensen	RSC Mucke Motorsport
9	19	T. Pal Kiss	Tech 1 Racing
10	23	T. Dillmann	Addax Team
11	4	A. Sims	Status Grand Prix
12	6	I. Lukashevich	Status Grand Prix
13	31	N. Melker	RSC Mucke Motorsport
14	5	A. Felix da Costa	Status Grand Prix
15	24	G. Chaves	Addax Team
16	17	A. Vainio	Tech 1 Racing
17	14	C. Daly	Carlin
18	22	Z. Amberg	Atech CRS GP
19	28	L. Williamson	MW Arden
20	12	M. Laine	Marussia Manor Racing
21	25	D. Smith	Addax Team
22	8	M. Zimin	Jenzer Motorsport
23	1	R. Stanaway	Lotus ART
24	15	C. Macleod	Carlin
25	20	M. Stockinger	Atech CRS GP
26	29	D. Mancinelli	RSC Mucke Motorsport
27	18	T. Hylkema	Tech 1 Racing
28	21	N. Yelloly	Atech CRS GP
29	16	L. Cordeiro	Carlin
30	9	C.Hurni	Jenzer Motorsport

Monza Front Row for Scuderia Coloni and Filippi.

Scuderia Coloni head into the GP2 Feature Race having seen Luca Filippi record his fourth consecutive P2 result in qualifying, after a strange session where the majority of the field set their best times on their first set of tyres.

The cause of this was the ever increasing track temperature which meant that each lap, the track was becoming slower. Lotus ART’s Esteban Gutierrez caused a long yellow flag period, which saw the majority of the field head back to their garages at the mid way point of the session.

Between the increase in track temperatures and the yellow flag period due to Gutierrez’s off, the best time to set the best times lasted a few minutes and Filippi was soon on top of the times and he then improved to a 1m32.480s, which would ultimately leave him second behind Charles Pic, just a tenth off Pole Position.

His final flying lap was on course to be a 1m31.8, but he lost six tenths of a second at the Parabolica and had to settle for second, but this offers Filippi and Scuderia Coloni the opportunity to win at home.

After qualifying, Filippi said: “On one side being on front row again means that our level of performance is just as high as in the latest outings, which is good. On the other side, losing pole again just for one tenth is frustrating. I wanted it and we had the potential to clinch it, so I’m sorry because it would have been the right way to say thanks to the Coloni guys for their amazing job. First row is good anyway, and knowing that two of my rivals for the overall podium are starting far behind (Bianchi and Van der Garde) is not bad. Now we must make the most of our huge potential again.”

Filippi’s team-mate at Scuderia Coloni, Michael Herck will start the feature race from P13 after qualifying. His best time of 1m32.865s was just two tenths off a second row starting position.

Herck suffered some understeer during qualifying which the team will aim to sort out ahead of the feature race, where the pit stop strategy and the layout at Monza will provide plenty of overtaking opportunities.

Romanian Herck said after qualifying: “Compared to this morning I improved a lot in the hard braking zones and at Ascari, but there is still some room for improvement in the second one of the Lesmos. Furthermore, I have too much understeer and that cost me some time in every corner. It’s not much, but at the end of the lap it makes that two tenths gap from second row. Anyway, tomorrow I will be in full attack mode.”

Pic on Pole for 2011 GP2 Vice Champion.

Charles Pic (Barwa Addax Team) has boosted his chances of finishing the 2011 GP2 Series as the Vice Champion after securing his third Pole Position of the season, having seen off the attentions of local hero and fellow Vice Champion contender Luca Filippi (Scuderia Coloni) while Fabio Leimer (Rapax) rounded out the top three after a scorching qualifying session at Monza.

Pic topped the final qualifying session of the season with a 1:32.349 to secure Pole Position, a time which he set after just seven minutes. At the flag, nineteen drivers were within a second of Pic’s time but none of them could better the time set early into the session.

Having finished P2 in the previous three qualifying sessions, Filippi was determined to not finish second at Monza and he was soon on top of the times. His time was soon beaten by Leimer and then newly crowned Champion Romain Grosjean (Dams) but the Italian wasn’t going to give in and soon set a time which looked good enough for pole… Pic, however, had other ideas.

Once Pic was back on top, it appeared that Filippi was going to bounce back on his next flying lap – that was until Esteban Gutierrez (Lotus ART) binned it at the Ascari complex and went into the barrier backwards, the fight was over.

Filippi was forced to back off due to the Gutierrez incident and that was that. Grosjean, Leimer and the returning Alvaro Parente (Carlin) all went wide as the searched for that extra bit of speed and time during the closing minutes but the damage had been done and Pic was able to celebrate.

Parente and Grosjean completed the Monza qualifying top five, while Dani Clos (Racing Engineering), Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering), Adam Carroll (Super Nova Racing), Sam Bird (iSport International) and Max Chilton (Carlin) completed the top ten.

GP2 Vice Champion contenders Giedo van der Garde (Barwa Addax Team) and Jules Bianchi (Lotus ART) both face uphill tasks after they were only able to finish nineteenth and twentieth fastest at Monza.

All of this will mean that the final GP2 feature race of the 2011 campaign will be a corker – with two contenders for Vice Champion up at the front while the other two starting back on row ten – the race is set up for fireworks.

GP2 Monza Qualifying Result:

Position	Driver	Team
1	Charles Pic	Barwa Addax Team
2	Luca Filippi	Scuderia Coloni
3	Fabio Leimer	Rapax
4	Alvaro Parente	Carlin
5	Romain Grosjean	Dams
6	Dani Clos	Racing Engineering
7	Christian Vietoris	Racing Engineering
8	Adam Carroll	Super Nova Racing
9	Sam Bird	iSport International
10	Max Chilton	Carlin
11	Jolyon Palmer	Arden International
12	Josef Kral	Arden International
13	Michael Herck	Scuderia Coloni
14	Davide Valsecchi	Caterham Team AirAsia
15	Marcus Ericsson	iSport International
16	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Trident Racing
17	Brendon Hartley	Ocean Racing Technology
18	Luiz Razia	Caterham Team AirAsia
19	Jules Bianchi	Lotus ART
20	Giedo van der Garde	Barwa Addax Team
21	Fairuz Fauzy	Super Nova Racing
22	Johnny Cecotto	Ocean Racing Technology
23	Julian Leal	Rapax
24	Stephane Richelmi	Trident Racing
25	Esteban Gutierrez	Lotus ART
26	Pal Varhaug	Dams

Triple Eight Unsure of Two Car Rockingham Appearance.

Triple Eight Race Engineering with Collins Contractors are inviting any interested parties to contact them over the vacant second turbocharged Vauxhall Vectra as it appears that the car will remain on the sidelines for the eighth round of the 2011 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

Tony Gilham occupied the car for the opening six race weekends’ before standing down and then, Clio Cup graduate Aron Smith occupied the car for Knockhill, where he scored a point on his BTCC Debut.

With lead driver James Nash a close second in the Independents’ Drivers trophy, and still in the hunt for the outright Drivers’ crown, the clock is ticking on filling the second seat for the trip to the Northamptonshire circuit of Rockingham.

Speaking about the situation facing the team before the trip to Rockingham, Triple Eight Chairman, Ian Harrison said: “I guess it is another sign of the times when a good car is likely to remain idle on a race weekend. Aron Smith took points with us on his BTCC debut at Knockhill but is back now in the Clio Championship where we very much hope he wins the title.

“We’ve not been short of enquiries for the seat but unfortunately finding somebody with suitable budget has so far proved to be elusive. It isn’t too late though and interested parties’ should contact me or Les Jones without delay.”

Round eight of the 2011 British Touring Car Championship takes place at Rockingham Motor Speedway over the 17/18 September.