Soucek celebrates championship in style
Spaniard takes his fifth win of the season in Imola
Andy Soucek celebrated his championship in style today,
leapfrogging Mirko Bortolotti and Robert Wickens from the start to
claim his fifth victory of the season.
The Spaniard, who clinched the championship yesterday, continued
his impressive streak in Formula Two as he looks forward to a test
with the AT&T Williams F1 team at the end of the season.
The race got off to a frenetic start - Soucek bursting between
the Red Bull duo of Wickens and Bortolotti, and Mikhail Aleshin
making his way up to fourth place. The Russian then passed Wickens
on the outside at the Traguardo chicane, but Aleshin pushed too
hard at the next corner and spun on the exit of Tamburello.
His car was stranded on the circuit as the whole F2 field
powered through - Jens Höing was unsighted and the German
ploughed into Aleshin at high speed.
A safety car was instantly deployed but Pietro Gandolfi failed
to see any of the marshals' boards and he ran into the slowing
Natacha Gachnang ahead. The young Swiss female racer was
furious with Gandolfi as she remonstrated with him after
the accident. Both cars were out on the spot and this
further prolonged the safety car period.
At the restart, Wickens got the jump on Bortolotti soon
after the start/finish line, but the Italian had a problem. With
smoke and oil coming from his engine, Bortolotti pulled off but not
before the slippery surface had caught out several drivers
behind. Alex Brundle was having a great run but the young
Englishman was the first to hit the oil and it fired him off into
the barrier. Julien Jousse and Jack Clarke followed suit, although
Clarke was able to rejoin the race.
Marshals quickly placed sand down on the oil while the race
continued and leader Soucek was the first to throw up plumes
of white dust into the cars behind. Wickens' car was covered, which
seemed to startle the Canadian momentarily as his vision was
obscurred. The leading pair traded fastest laps towards the end of
the race but they both maintained position as Soucek recorded his
fifth win of the season.
"I got a good start," said Soucek. "It was a bit dangerous
because I was in the middle of the Red Bull cars and I was a bit
uncomfortable, but I managed to squeeze up the inside. From then on
I just pushed really hard to improve my lap times, I was very
consistent and quick. Another victory, now five wins and eight
podiums - I can't really expect more. Today I really wanted it to
be good, and I'm very proud."
Miloš Pavlović took a lonely yet
well deserved third place. The Serbian has been dogged by bad
luck throughout much of 2009 but he drove well to
achieve his first visit to the podium since Spa-Francorchamps
in June.
"It's a relief to be back on the podium," said
Pavlović. "Racing is all about confidence, so if you
start having problems you start losing ground. This weekend I
qualified well, and it's nice to be back in the top three."
Tobias Hegewald took fourth to fire himself back into the top
six of the championship standings, whilst Carlos Iaconelli came
home fifth.
There was a fantastic battle for sixth place and it will be a
memorable one for young Briton Jolyon Palmer. The teenager has been
in good form at Imola and he followed up his storming drive during
yesterday's race with another here today. His rise from 16th
on the grid to sixth at the finish included a great pass on
Spaniard Germán Sánchez, and he picked up his first
points of the season ahead of Jason Moore and Sánchez.
Moore, the reigning Formula Palmer Audi champion, deserves great
praise after racing with a fractured hand throughout the weekend,
and a fantastic pass on Sánchez late on will have made his
efforts all the more worthwhile.
Nicola De Marco and Philipp Eng both fought their way up from
the back of the field and were challenging for sixth at one stage,
but the pair eventually had to settle for ninth and tenth
respectively. Armaan Ebrahim was struck with bad luck when his
car did not get off the start line, whilst race one winner Kazim
Vasiliauskas retired with a mechanical failure when running well in
the top six.
Imola - Race Two Classification:
1. Andy Soucek, 15 laps
2. Robert Wickens, +2.407s
3. Miloš Pavlović, +7.912s
4. Tobias Hegewald, +16.389s
5. Carlos Iaconelli, +20.163s
6. Jolyon Palmer, +23.510s
7. Jason Moore, +25.495s
8. Germán Sánchez, +27.214s
9. Nicola De Marco, +27.288s
10. Philipp Eng, +28.071s