Istanbul was a frustrating weekend for both the DAMS’ GP2 drivers after achieving one of the best results in qualifying since the start of the season but failed to capitalise big on race day.

Jose Maria LOPEZ placed himself third on the starting grid, just one tenth of a second shy from poleman Nico ROSBERG, while Fairuz FAUZY started from 15th place after a very tight session, clocking less than one tenth of a second from championship leader Heikki KOVALAINEN. The team had shown in numerous occasions that they were competitive and the hard work has been duly converted into a performance progress.

The team started Saturday’s first race in high level of confidence, with LOPEZ and the technical crew confessing that a pole position was highly possible on Friday. Unfortunately however, the Safety Car came in early on the second lap of Saturday’s first race following Neel JANI’s crash.

The four leading cars, including LOPEZ’s who was running in third, decided to stay on the track as the rest came into the pits to make their mandatory tyre change. In the end however, LOPEZ along with the three other drivers who stayed on track during this Safety Car period lost their positions with Scott SPEED who was running 2nd while LOPEZ running 3rd in the end finished 5th and 6th respectively. Fairuz FAUZY however, failed to finish the first race.

On Sunday, weather conditions interrupted as rain poured while the cars were still on the starting grid. Under wet conditions, Jose Maria took an impressive start from third on the grid to take the lead by the first corner. Unfortunately he lost some positions within the first lap as track conditions were completely green and very slippery, making it difficult to keep on track and push at the same time. LOPEZ in the end finished near the points in 7th place while Fairuz FAUZY finished 15th, a disappointing results considering the progress made on Friday’s qualifying sessions that had the promise of providing the young Malaysian a good final results in this new circuit.

The team had worked very hard to make significant progresses and to be in the pace, and the results in qualifying showed that DAMS was at the top as evident in several earlier race meetings this year. The team has been quite unlucky to have missed good opportunities in the races, but every team member is opportunistic to be able to push the drivers for race wins after the promises of a superb qualifying.

GP2 Qualifying Results – Istanbul, Turkey
1. Nico Rosberg - ART - 1'38"416
2. Scott Speed - Isport - 1'38"531
3. Josè Maria Lopez - Dams - 1'38"561
4. Giorgio Pantano - Super Nova - 1'38"690
5. Nelson Piquet - Piquet - 1'38"820
6. Alexandre Premat - ART - 1'38"897
7. Adam Carroll - Super Nova - 1'39"335
8. Gianmaria Bruni - Coloni - 1'39"533
9. Borja Garcia - Racing Engineering - 1'39"708
10. Hiroki Yoshimoto - BCN - 1'39"830
11. Juan Cruz Alvarez - Campos - 1'39"830
12. Neel Jani - Racing Engineering - 1'39"982
13. Heikki Kovalainen - Arden - 1'40"040
14. Sergio Hernandez - Campos - 1'40"064
15. Fairuz Fauzy - Dams - 1'40"081
16. Ferdinando Monfardini - Durango - 1'40"205
17. Alexandre Negrao - Piquet - 1'40"295
18. Nicolas Lapierre - Arden - 1'40"629
19. Giorgio Mondini - DPR - 1'40"749
20. Clivio Piccione - Durango - 1'40"770
21. Ernesto Viso - BCN - 1'40"794
22. Can Artam - Isport - 1'40"952
23. Olivier Pla - DPR - 1'40"956
24. Mathias Lauda - Coloni - 1'41"184


GP2 Race 1 Results – Istanbul, Turkey
1 - Alexandre Premat - ART - 34 laps in 1.01'27"680
2 - Giorgio Pantano - Super Nova - 0"335
3 - Borja Garcia - Racing Engineering - 9"486
4 - Nelson Piquet - Piquet - 10"987
5 - Scott Speed - Isport - 13"076
6 - Josè Maria Lopez - Dams - 18"449
7 - Adam Carroll - Super Nova - 19"558
8 - Hiroki Yoshimoto - BCN - 21"128
9 - Olivier Pla - DPR - 21"615
10 - Heikki Kovalainen - Arden - 28"630
11 - Can Artam - Isport - 30"582
12 - Alexandre Negrao - Piquet - 38"315
13 - Giorgio Mondini - DPR - 40"653
14 - Ernesto Viso - BCN - 48"068
15 - Juan Cruz Alvarez - Campos - 50"424
16 - Mathias Lauda - Coloni - 52"408
17 - Nico Rosberg - ART - 2 laps


Retirees
Sergio Hernandez
Fairuz Fauzy
Gianmaria Bruni
Nicolas Lapierre
Clivio Piccione
Ferdinando Monfardini


GP2 Race 2 Results – Istanbul, Turkey
1 - Heikki Kovalainen - Arden - 23 laps in 43'48"581
2 - Adam Carroll - Super Nova - 7"985
3 - Nico Rosberg - ART - 8"556
4 - Scott Speed - Isport - 9"328
5 - Borja Garcia - Racing Engineering - 11"341
6 - Nelson Piquet - Piquet - 18"360
7 - José Maria Lopez - Dams - 21"618
8 - Giorgio Pantano - Super Nova - 24"032
9 - Gianmaria Bruni - Coloni - 25"718
10 - Hiroki Yoshimoto - BCN - 34"197
11 - Clivio Piccione - Durango - 39"720
12 - Ernesto Viso - BCN - 39"750
13 - Nicolas Lapierre - Arden - 40"095
14 - Alexandre Premat - ART - 1'03"412
15 - Fairuz Fauzy - Dams - 1'17"374
16 - Can Artam - Isport - 1'28"799
17 - Olivier Pla - DPR - 1'30"662
18 - Mathias Lauda - Coloni - 1 lap
19 - Alexandre Negrao - Piquet - 1 lap


Retirees
Giorgio Mondini - Lap 2
Juan Cruz Alvarez – Lap 10
Neel Jani – Lap 14
Ferdinando Monfardini – Lap 18


GP2 Current Championship Standings

1.Kovalainen 85; 2.Rosberg 78; 3.Speed 59; 4.Premat 53; 5.Carroll 41; 6.Jani 40; 7.Pantano 36; 8.Bruni 33; 9.Piquet 30; 10.Lopez 28; 11.Pla 20; 12.Piccione 14; 13.Lapierre 13; 14.Garcia 12; 15.Yoshimoto 11; 16.Viso 5; 17.Hernandez & Lauda 3; 19.Artam, Negrao & Sharp 2; 22.Monfardini 1