GP2 Series – Italian races – Monza
Giorgio Pantano arrived in the Racing Engineering team with one clear objective: to become the Champion of the GP2 Series 2008. After 19 races the Repsol driver has fulfilled his ambitious objective, demonstrating a high level of consistency round after round. Seven trips to the podium, four of them to the top, made him into the driver with the best hand at the start of the final round of the championship, the final testing ground before Formula 1.
At the age of 29, Pantano is one of the most experienced drivers in the competition, something that he has taken advantage of, working hard in practice so as to attain a great efficiency in the races. The Repsol driver moved into the lead in the overall standings after the second race of the year. In the following round, held in Monaco two weeks later, Pantano did not finish either of the two races and so shared the lead in the overall standings, tied with a rival on points. However, three consecutive victories in the long races held on Saturday afternoons meant the Repsol driver was on course for the title and during the remainder of the season knew exactly how to administer his lead.
The champioship began encouragingly at the Circuit de Cataluña, where he finished 4th in the race on the Saturday, and on the Sunday he managed to finish on the podium for the first time. Two weeks later, in the second date of the season held at the Turkish circuit of Istanbul Park, the Repsol driver got to to the top of the podium. Pantano set the fastest time in training, and when the race started he got away from the rest and was on the way to another triumph. The following day he was 4th, and the fifteen point total he won that weekend confirmed that he was a serious title contender.
Monaco, the city circuit in the Principality, was once again a trap for many drivers and the Italian in the Racing Engineering team could not elude some of the many race incidents. In both the long race, as well as in the sprint, Pantano collided with other drivers and ended up out of the race, winning zero points. However, this was a minor glitch, since in the next round, held at the French circuit of Magny Tours, the Repsol driver got another victory and snatched back the lead; something he did not surrender again the rest of the season. An accident left him pointless in the race on the Sunday, but once again in the long race held at Silverstone, he was in tip-top form getting another victory. On the next day, in a race in the rain, Pantano fought back to third position and confirmed that he was the strongest in the first half of the champioship.
The sixh round in the calendar arrived in the middle of July in Germany. Pantano finished 6th after dominating the training sessions and a large part of the race, but it started to rain five laps from the end. He had a couple of frights owing to the fact that all the cars had slicks on, and to top it all he was then overtaken by Grosjean. The Repsol driver decided to make sure of his points and so he drove safely to finish the race, but taking some valuable points home with him. But the points harvest suddenly increased just a few minutes after the race ended, the French driver was penalised and so the Repsol driver got his fourth victory of the season. On the Sunday an incident with another car when he was fighting for third position, left him out of the race.
Two weeks later when the teams travelled to Hungary he lost out on any points on the Saturday, finishing 14th, but fought back to 5th on the Sunday. In the race held around the Valencia city circuit Pantano got another brilliant victory, this time after getting the pole position he led from the start to the finish, but unfortunately Lady luck turned her back on the Repsol driver; he ran out of petrol on the final lap. The race on the Sunday witnessed another great fightback from the Italian, who starting in fourteenth position, crossed the finishing line in 4th place. This time, for the second time this season, a penalty allowed the driver to move up one more position, giving him an added boost to his title hopes.
The penultimate race of the year was in Belgium. Pantano gradually worked his way into first place, but a problem with his car made him drop back to 10th position. When he attempted to recover the lost ground he hit a rival and crossed the finishing line in 21st position. This scrape was a little expensive as it meant that he was not in the race on the Sunday. Fortunately his main rivals in the overall clasificación did not win points either, and so he was able to go to the final race in Italy with a gap of thirteen points separating him from the rest of the field.
In front of his home crowd the Repsol driver did a perfect job in training , winning pole position and showing a clear intention of wrapping up the title as soon as possible. This afternoon, when the first race began at four o`clock, Pantano quickly moved to take cotrol of the field and stayed in first place until the tyre change. At that moment he made a mistake crossing over the white pit lane marker and was penalised with a drive-through, consequently he dropped down the classification. In the end he was 10th, but the only driver who could have snatched the title away from him, Bruno Senna, did not get enough points to postpone the title fight until the final day, tomorrow Sunday. And so with one race left this season, Giorgio Pantano has become the brand new Champion of the GP2 Series 2008.
Biography
After a brilliant career in the world of karting, where he won the Italian Championship and the European in the cadet category in his first participation, the world title in the Junior category in 1994, and the European champioships in ‘95 and ‘96, Giorgio Pantano became one of the hottest properties in Italian motor-racing. In 2000 he changed to motor-car racing, German Formula 3, he was soon alternating drives in different championships with tests for several Formula 1 teams. He drove a Benetton in 2000, McLaren in 2001, Williams in 2002, and a Minardi also in 2002. His good performances brought him a place in the Formula 3000 International, where he fought for the title over three years, until in 2004 the Jordan team gave him a chance to make his debut in Formula 1.
His time in the top category of motor-racing coincided with a decline in the fortunes of the Anglo-Irish team, and he suffered a season full of problemas. He was replced in the team when there were three races left, and in 2005 decided to try his luck in the GP2 Series, which started that very year. In his first year he won a pole position and had six podium finishes, 6th in the final standings. The following year, and after losing the first six rounds in Valencia, Imola and Nürburgring, was able to open his victory account by winning the short race held in France, at the circuit of Magny-Cours. He also managed to get two more victories, in the two races held at Monza, finishing the season 5th in the overall standings.
In the 2007 season Pantano got another two victories, visiting the podium a total of four times. His good results allowed him, in spite of five retirements, to finish the championship in 3rd position; above all because the Italian showed a great ability in setting up the car so as to get good classification positions in training, and most importantly in the long races on Saturday afternoons.
In 2008, the Italian driver joined the Racing Engineering team, setting himself the highest possible objective: to win races and to fight for the title. The intense work done in winter confirmed those expectations, and now, the fruits of all that hard work has brought the prize he cherished. The Repsol driver has made his experience and inborn talent tell to go the fastest and so add a new trophy to his already large collection: the trophy awarded to the Champion of the GP2 Series 2008.
