MAY 8, 2005

Lopez holds it together

Jose Maria Lopez has a reputation for being quick for flying off the road on a regular basis. In Barcelona the Argentine driver held it all together and won the second GP2 race. The pole man for the race Xandi Negrao failed to get off the line at the start of the parade lap and so pole position was left deserted. At the start three cars failed to get way, the GP2 transmissions still being something of a problem and so we lost Heikki Kovalainen, Hiroki Yoshimoto and Ryan Sharp, although the last-named did rejoin and set the fastest lap later. In addition Ernesto Viso was stuck in the pits with a technical problem.

At the start Lopez made a better start to grab the lead from Adam Carroll, Nelson Piquet Jr, Scott Speed and Neel Jani with Fairuz Fauzy next up ahead of Race One winner Gianmaria Bruni. Olivier Pla spun off early and then Bruni passed Fauzy. Alexandre Premat then spun at the last corner and hit the pit wall and a Safety car was sent out and the field bunched up as the wreckage was cleared up. Bruni then dropped out with a mechanical problem and in the closing laps we saw Nico Rosberg pass Fauzy for sixth and on the last lap he scrambled ahead of Jani to grab fourth place.

The last lap also saw a collision between Piquet and Carroll which resulted in the Ulsterman being spun around and Piquet taking second. This was judged to be a racing incident by the wise men in the stewards' room although knowing Northern Irish racing drivers, Carroll may have used different - and rather more colourful - vocabulary.