Br En

Iaconelli wins again
June 27, 2010

fotoSecond win in two Auto GP weekend for Carlos Iaconelli. After winning Imola’s second race, the Brazilian driver did the same in Spa clinching success in Race 2. Starting from pole position thanks to his eight place in Race 1, Iaconelli had a goos start and kept the lead for the whole race, despite two Safety-Car periods that packed the group again. The Durango driver kept cold blood and managed the situation in the best possible way, even resisting to a huge pressure from Romain Grosjean in the last laps. The French driver was in really good shape in Spa: in this second race he made up four positions between the start and the “La Source” exit, and then he started fighting with Edoardo Piscopo and Jan Charouz for P2. After the second restart the former Renault F1 driver improved his pace, passing Charouz on lap 8 and then doing the same with Piscopo on the following lap, with a daring outside move at Les Combes.
The championship leader had now to face the attacks from Charouz: the Czech driver was clearly faster and made the most of the Kemmel straight to take Piscopo’s slipstream, passing him again in Les Combes and clinching the season’s first podium.
Fifth place, behind Piscopo, for Luca Filippi after an amazing duel with Giorgio Pantano and Jonny Reid. After the second Safety-Car period, caused by Stefano Bizzarri and Celso Miguez making contact and crashing in Blanchimont, the three drivers were really close to each other. Pantano seemed quicker, but in the last two laps Filippi passed Reid first entering Eau Rouge, and then hunted Pantano on the last corners of the race. Filippi was faster out of Blanchimont, and passed Pantano in the Bus Stop chicane. Due to this move, Pantano had a slow exit from the chicane and Reid nearly managed to pass him, closing just 0.004 behind!
Fabrizio Crestani was eight, in front of Duncan Tappy and Adrien Tambay, while Fabio Onidi retired with a broken driveshaft.

Carlos Iaconelli: “Two wins in two weekend are something special, and winning in Spa is even more, because this circuit made the racing history! The race wasn’t easy, the two Safety-Car periods meant that my opponents could recover easily, but in the end everything was fine. Just at the end, when Grosjean was charging, I really had to push to the limit. Keeping him behind wasn’t easy”.

Romain Grosjean: “Winning both races would have been great, and without the Safety-Car it would have been possible, I think. Anyway it was a great comeback to single-seaters and I have to say thanks to Dams for this. We did the right choices between the two races and my car was perfect. While everybody was slowing down because of the tyre wear my car was better and better”.

Jan Charouz: “Getting the first podium in Spa is a really special feeling. People calls Brno ‘the little Spa’ and I was aiming for a podium there because it’s my home race, but I didn’t manage to do it. So, the only way to be satisfied was making it in the big Spa, and I’m really happy that I did it! The race was good but I was way quicker than Iaconelli and Piscopo and I think that without the Safety-Cars i could have taken second place”.

source: autogp.com