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GROSJEAN TAKES RACE 1 AGAINPODIUM AND DISAPPOINTMENT FOR ONIDI

MAGAZINE04/2010

BRAZILIAN

FIESTATHIRDW

ININAROWFO

RIACONELLI

ANDDURANGO

INMAGNY-COU

RS

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RACE REPORT - BRNO

Round 07The first Auto GP race in Magny-Courswas a real heart-breaker: RomainGrosjean won after a really bad startand a gift from lady luck: actually it wasTambay who led nearly the whole racebut with just two laps to go a fuelpressure issue stopped his car. TheCharouz-Gravity Racing driver reallydeserved success because his race

was just flawless: he passed from 3rdto first position thanks to a great start,and then he managed to keep Grosjeanat bay, making no mistakes despite thehuge pressure from his rival. AfterTambays retirement Grosjean sailedtowards his second win in the series,and clinching the fastest lap of the racehe secured enough points to win theweekend classification: after the badstart from pole he dropped to fourthplace, and so DAMS decided for an

early stop strategy. With fresh rubberRomain pushed a lot and thanks to

some very quick laps he climbed backto second, then inheriting the win fromTambay. Second was Duncan Tappy,

making a wonderful one-two result forDAMS. The brit was fast at the greenlight and then he fought with Grosjeanduring the first laps. Then he lostcontact with the leaders due to a littlemistake at the pit-stop, and settled for2nd place, his best result in Auto GP upto now. Behind Tappy, Fabio Onidi tookhis third podium finish of the season.The Lazarus driver gained one place atthe start of the race, and then overtookalso Esteban Guerrieri thanks to a good

race pace and pit-stop strategy.Jake Rosenzweig took a surprising P4

in his maiden Auto GP race, ahead ofJan Charouz. The Czech driver madeup four places after starting from the

9th spot of the grid. Behind Jan werehis team-mate Esteban Guerrieri and anhard fighting duo: Edoardo Piscopo andCarlos Iaconelli battled for the wholerace, and in the end the Italian driverwas ahead, passing his Brazilian rival onlast lap. Iaconelli, anyway can be happybecause P8 meant the Race 2 poleposition.Besides Tambay, bad luck hamperedalso Stefano Bizzarri and GiorgioPantano: the RP driver had to start from

the pits for a problem with the steeringrack, while the former GP2 champion

GROSJEAN

TAKES ALL

Pole and Race 1success for Grosjeanin France

RACE REPORT - MAGNY-COURS

Miguez leads Pantano and Rosenzweig

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WHOS THE LEADERROUND 051. Romain Grosjean (DAMS) 21 laps in 31503362. Duncan Tappy (DAMS) +7.211

3. Fabio Onidi (LAZARUS) +11.5414. Jake Rosenzweig (SUPERNOVA RACING) +12.7465. Jan Charouz (CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING) +17.8106. Esteban Guerrieri (CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING) +22.6887. Edoardo Piscopo (DAMS) +22.9438. Carlos Iaconelli (DURANGO) +23.333

ROUND 061. Carlos Iaconelli (DURANGO) 16 laps in 25554582. Jan Charouz (CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING) +1.6063. Edoardo Piscopo (DAMS) +2.9714. Duncan Tappy (DAMS) +5.4045. Esteban Guerrieri (CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING) +7.254

6. Jonny Reid (SUPERNOVA RACING) +11.645

DRIVERS CLASSIFICATION1. Edoardo Piscopo 32 points2. Romain Grosjean 30 points3. Jan Charouz 24 points4. Duncan Tappy 24 points5. Carlos Iaconelli 24 points6. Luca Filippi 23 points7. Fabio Onidi 18 points8. Adrien Tambay 17 points9. Jonny Reid 11 points10. Giorgio Pantano 8 points11. Vladimir Arabadzhiev 8 points Charouz, Iaconelli and Piscopo on Race 2 podium

was slowed by a wheel nut issue duringhis pit-stop.

Round 08Call him Mister Race Two: CarlosIaconelli won the Auto GP short race inMagny-Cours, exactly as he did in Imolaand Spa. Starting from pole position,Iaconelli had to keep at bay a chargingJan Charouz in the first laps, and then

extended his lead creating a 15 gapthat he managed to keep until thecheckered flag, taking another six points:thanks to this he is now third in thechampionship, tied on points withDuncan Tappy and Jan Charouz. TheCzech driver was the only one able tothreathen Iaconellis lead: with a greatstart he overtook Piscopo, who wasstarting in front of him, and then he triedto put some pressure on the Durangodriver in the first corner and at the

Adelaide hairpin. Anyway Iaconelli didntmake any mistake and Charouz had to

settle for second. Piscopo was third,and opted for a save driver to grab fourvaluable points useful to keep the serieslead. Behind him was team-mateDuncan Tappy, ahead of Charouz-GravityRacings Esteban Guerrieri.Meanwhile, the race was just a fewmetres long for Romain Grosjean andFabio Onidi: the Italian driver stalled hiscar at the start and the frenchman of

DAMS couldnt avoid him. Who madethe most of this crash was Jonny Reid:the kiwi of SuperNova was really quickoff the line and he managed to passJulian Leal. Then he did no mistakesdespite a lot of pressure from theTrident driver, grabbing one point.Very unlucky performance for GiorgioPantano: he recovered up to 9th placewith a good first half of the race, fightingwith Rosenzweig for a long time. Then,after being passed by the US driver he

had to retire due to an issue with thegearbox control unit.

MORALWINNEREven Romain Grosjean had torecognize that Adrien Tambayshould have won the first race inMagny-Cours: Im very sorry forAdrien who is a good friend ofmine said Romain he did a

perfect race and, even if I wasclose, passing him would havebeen difficult. The French driver ofCharouz-Gravity Racing passedfrom 3rd to 1st place with aperfect start, and then led nearlythe whole race, retiring with justtwo laps to go due to a fuel

pressure problem. After the racehe was really disappointed: Icant believe what happened. Iwas taking 10 points and Piscopowas 9th, a bad position for thesecond race start. I was gettingback in contention for the title,and now I have nothing. Theresjust one good thing: I got back theright feeling with the car, so I

hope I will keep this momentum inthe next races.

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RACE REPORT - MAGNY-COURS

FRENCH

DOMINANCE

After 4 events out of six,DAMS emerged as theteam to beat in Auto GP.With its drivers often in thetop spots of each session,the French outfit actuallyleads all the seriesstandings: in the drivers

classification EdoardoPiscopo leads with a twopoint advantage over team-mate Romain Grosjean,while Duncan Tappy is thirdwith 24 points, tied withCarlos Iaconelli and JanCharouz. Thanks to thisresults, Dams stretchedtheir lead on thecompetition in the Teamsstandings, with a 41 points

gap on the second placedoutfit, Charouz-GravityRacing. Durango andSuperNova are tied on 3rd

place with 24 points, andthe Italians team result isreally remarkable becauseit has been reached withjust one car.DAMS leads the pack also

in the earningsclassification: RomainGrosjean won both theweekends he contestedand took home 160.000euros, while Edoardo

Piscopo lies third with102.500 eurosand Duncan Tappyis fourth with 80.000 euros.If youre looking foran explaintation for thisdominance, you shouldlisten to Duncan Tappy:

What I can say is thatDAMS are a reallygood team, with a provenworking method and aperfect understandingbetween all teammembers. Then thereis a lot of cooperationbetween the drivers: weare working together,sharing impressions anddatas, and there are no

secrets. Maybethis is what is givingus the edge on ourcompetitors.

1. Romain Grosjean 160.000 euro

2. Luca Filipp 115.000 euro

3. Edoardo Piscopo 102.500 euro

4. Adrien Tambay 80.000 euro

4. Carlos Iaconelli 80.000 euro

4. Duncan Tappy 80.000 euro

7. Jan Charouz 73.333 euro

7. Fabio Onidi 38.333 euro

9. Vladimir Arabadzhiev 30.000 euro

10. Giorgio Pantano 15.000 euro

11. Adrian Zaugg 13.333 euro

12. Celso Miguez 12.500 euro

GROSJEANIS THE NEW

CHIP LEADER

Tappy was second

in the first race in Magny-Cours

EdoardoPiscopo

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TEAM STANDINGS1. DAMS, 90 points

2. Charouz-Gravity Racing, 49 points

3. Durango 24 points

3. SuperNova 24 points

5. Euronova Racing, 23 points

6. Team Lazarus, 18 points

7 Trident Racing, 13 points

8. RP Motorsport, 6 points

5

GROSJEAN ANDFILIPPI TO GP2Auto GP keeps being a greatstepping stone for driversaiming to GP2. This weekendthe Main Series 6th event inHockenheim saw two Auto GPdrivers on the grid:Besides Luca Filippi, drivingfor SuperNova as he alreadydid in Silverstone, also Romain

Grosjean got back at the whe-el of the Dallara-Renault. TheFrenchman, 2nd in the seriesstandings two points adriftfrom Piscopo, contested theMain Series races with DAMS,the same team that fields himin Auto GP. Following hisastounding performances inthe series (in just two events,Spa and Magny-Cours, he clin-ched two wins and onesecond place) Grosjean waschosen by Gravity Manage-ment to step in for Jerme

DAmbrosio, taking the seat ofthe Renault F.1 liveried car.

Romain had a very importanttask: thanks to his talent andexperience he was meant toanalyse the reasons why thed'Ambrosio/DAMS pairing hasbeen unable to fully unlock itspotential so far this season.Despite a very unlucky wee-kend, Romain managed to

show that the French team'scar is very fast: in Race 2 herecovered from P19 to 6th pla-ce before retiring due to arace incident with Pastor Mal-donado.At the moment this should bea one-off commitment for Gro-sjean, with DAmbrosio due totake back his seat for the nextraces, but it shows anywayhow well the Auto GP conceptis working: key people inmotorsport are looking at theseries with great interest

thanks to a really high qualitygrid.

Filippi in SuperNova's GP2 car

THE NEWCOMERSAuto GP hailed two newcomers in Brno: Esteban Guerrieristepped in for Natacha Gachnang at Charouz-Gravity Racing,

while following Giorgio Pantanos move to Euronova, JakeRosenzweig drove the #9 SuperNova car. Both drivers boastedan impressive debut performance, clinching valuable points attheir first appearance in the series. It was not a surprisebecause their talent is well proven: both are racing in WorldSeries by Renault at the moment and while Guerrieri is 4th inthe standings with 3 wins up to now, Rosenzweig made animpression in Spa clinching a dominating pole on a soakingtrack. In Auto GP both drivers were really fast straight out ofthe box, with Guerrieri taking second place in the Qualifyingsession and Rosenzweig posting the 5th fastest lap. Then, atthe start of Race 1 Guerrieri was a bit slow and Rosenzweigmade the most of it, passing him and closing the race in an

amazing 4th spot. His Argentinian rival was 6th meaning asecond row start for Race 2: he was again slow off the line, butmanaged to grab 5th place anyway, while Rosenzweigs secondrace was ruined by a mistake at the start of the warm-up lap.Jake stalled the engine and was demoted to the back of thegrid, and starting from the last position he boasted an amazingrecovery to 9th place, fighting with Pantano and evenovertaking the former GP2 champion.

ESTEBAN GUERRIERI(RA)TEAM: CHAROUZ-GRAVITY RACING

BIRTHDATE: January 19, 1985

2009: Superleague Formula,

Ws by Renault

JAKE ROSENZWEIG(USA)TEAM: SUPERNOVA

BIRTHDATE: April 14, 1989

2009: F3 Euro Series

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Carlos Iaconelliundoubtedly is Auto GPsking of Race 2. On 4events contested until nowhe won the second race 3times, once starting fromP2 on the grid and twicestarting from pole. TheBrazilians pace is so goodthat when he starts in fronthe usually manages to

control the race, slighthlyimproving the gap over hisrivals lap by lap. Thanks tohis wins he is now third inthe standings, just 8 pointsadrift from Piscopo.

So Carlos, now youhave an 8 points gap

from the leader: with

38 points still up forgrabs do you think

you can really have ashot at the title?

Obviously yes. 8 points isnot a huge gap with twofull events to contest.Anyway, I also know thatto really challenge for thetitle I have to improve.Winning Race 2 isntenough because the bigpoints are awarded in Race1, so I have to look forbetter results in the the

first race too.

What do you think you

need to improve to

aim for a Race 1success?

Basically I just need tosecure a better startposition, because our racepace is actually very good.With Durango we areworking to improve in

qualifying and in Magny-Cours things seemed to

get better. I was just a bitunlucky because on thelast lap, when all theothers were posting theirquickest lap, I made amistake. So I had to startfrom P12.You always won Race

2 starting from thefront row. Some

people in the paddock

suggests thatfinishing 8th in the

first race has become

a strategy for you and

Durango.Thats not true. Just lookat Magny-Cours: in Race 1I was fighting withGuerrieri for 6th place,then we touched and Iwent off, thats why Ifinished in P8. I would

have preferred getting twomore points, also because

I had good chances ofwinning Race 2 alsostarting from the third spotof the grid. You neverwaste some sure points onpurpose in motorsport,because you dont whatsgonna happen in the nextrace.

You have at least 5

rivals for the title,who do you think willbe the most difficult

to beat?

Even if Piscopo is ahead,I think that Grosjean willbe the one to beat. In justtwo events he made morepoints than all of us, sohes the benchmark.Anyway they are all gooddrivers, Edoardo, Charouz,

Tappy, beating them all willbe a really difficult task.

THE RACE 2 KING

IACONELLI WON THE SECOND RACE 3 TIMESOUT OF 4 AND NOW TARGETS THE TITLE

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If Iaconelli has a very specialrelationship with Race 2, FabioOnidi seems to be under aspell that prevents him fromseeing the second race'sfinish line. Up to now theLazarus driver collected 4retirements in Race 2, andthis is really hampering apotentially good season: Fabioshowed repeteadly that he is

among the field's mostcompetitive drivers, clinching3 podium finishes in Race 1,the most important one asthere's no help from thereversed grid. So, with a bitmore luck, he could havebeen among the titlecontenders.

14 points from the lead,

38 up for grabs. Do you

think that fighting for thetitle is still possible?

"Well, the maths say so, butactually I feel that given thekind of drivers we have in thechampionship, aiming for thetitle win with such a gap couldbe too much. Anyway I'd loveto end the season on theoverall podium. That's arealistic aim, and I will do mybest to achieve it".

A fuel issue in Brno, acrash in Imola, adriveshaft in Spa and a

mistake in Magny-Cours.

Just bad luck or

something more?"I don't like to think and talkabout bad luck, you know, it'sjust things that happen inracing. A racecar is a complexmachine, breaking a driveshaftor a fuel pump is nothing

special. It's just a pity that dueto this and to some mistakes I

did, I scored no points in fourraces. That is really bad forthe championship".

Who will be the hardest

to beat among your

rivals for the title?"Grosjean is undoubtedly thequickest and strongest overall,while looking at the others Ithink that I'm on a par with

everybody. I have to say that Iwas impressed by Tappy andTambay, they really improveda lot in this season. On theother side, Piscopo's shapedoesn't look so good, so Idon't think he can win thetitle".

If don't get along well

with Race 2, you really

do with Race 1, the

longer one. You alreadygot 3 podiums.

"My relationship with Lazarushas a part in that. I raced forthat team in 2008 and wewere strong, this year weimmediately got that feelingback. They are really good,we just have to improve inqualifying and find that littlegap that still separes our carfrom the DAMS cars.

Also in 2010 you keepbeing one of the best

starters around: tell usyour secret.

"No I won't (he laughs). I haveto say that I was always goodoff the line in my racingcareer, but with this car I havea special feeling. I think that Ifound the right way to start inthe best possible way with the

Auto GP Lola, and I'm notgonna reveal that!".

THE RACE 2 CURSEONIDI COLLECTED FOUR RACE 2 RETIREMENTS:

HOW BAD LUCK IS RUINING A GOOD SEASON

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Greetings

fromMagny-Cours

Hard brakingby Charouz

Bizzarriat full speed

TheRace1podium

JulianLeal

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PantanoracedforEuronova

inMagny-Cours

Points finish in Race 2 for Reid

Guerrieri took 5 points on his debut weekend

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Magny-Cours was a veryhot weekend and not only

from a sportingstandpoint. The

temperature were reallyhigh for the whole

weekend, and this meantthat the teams had to

open all the cars cooling

louvers to keep theengine temperatures inthe right range. All thecars were all right, but

some among the teamsstaff had a really difficult

time coping with the heat.Anyway the very hot

weather wasnt bad newsfor everybody: someone,

like this young camera-man, made the most ofthe sun enjoying some

tanning time!

Auto GP keeps being the fastest feeder-series below GP2: looking atthe weekend laptimes, the Lola B05/52-Zytek confirmed its dominanceamong the one-make series single seaters, and by a long way. In Magny-Cours the fastest lap of the races was a 128180 posted by RomainGrosjean on Saturday. Compared to the fastest lap of the World Series

by renault races, held on the Circuit de Nevers just 3 weeks earlier, AutoGP was 7 tenths quicker! So, despite the extreme heat hampering gripand engine performance, Auto GP is still the car to beat

A cute, blonde 6 years old girlplaying with a slick tyre? Dont

worry, its just routine in theEuronova box. Stephanie Gabriella,

Vincenzo Sospiris daughter, grew

up surrounded by racing cars,drivers and mechanics, so for her a

tyre is just something to play with.

Anyway, like every young lady she

also likes drawing a lot: so, will shebe an engineer or a stylist? And

what would daddy prefere?

FUTURESTYLISTOR

ENGINEER?

HOT, HOT, HOT!

STILL SETTINGTHE PACE

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NEXT STOP:

NAVARRA LOS ARCOSThe Navarra track is the latest born

among the spanish circuits, and this

gave the project managers the chance

to create a state-of-the-art complex.

Like many of the racetracks which

were built in the last years, the Los

Arcos circuit has a modular layout,

allowing different track configuratuons.

The longest one, which will be used by

Auto GP, is nearly 4 kms long, but

when necessary the circuit staff even

has the possibility to split the track in

two completely separate layouts,

something that will allow the circuit to

host two different events in the same

weekend.

With 15 corners, 9 right and 6 left, thetrack boasts every kind of challenge a

driver can desire. There are 3 very fast

corners, the first one, number 3 and

number 7, and each one of this is

followed by a tight hairpin, meaning a

lot of overtaking chances and very

exciting races.

Opened in june with a parade and a

Red Bull F.1 show in front of more than

20.000 people, the racetrack will be

inaugurated by Auto GP. Itshomologated to host F.1 testing (grade

T1) and this means that it has the best

safety features alongside huge runoff

areas. Besides that, the 800 metres

main straight will mean a top speed of

around 290 km/h for the Auto GP cars.

CIRCUITODE NAVARRA LOS ARCOSLap distance: 3,933 km

Right turns: 9Left turns: 6

Location: 50 kms south-west

of Pamplona

Official website:

http://www.circuitodenavarra.com

CALENDAR 2010

01&02 24-25 April Brno, Czech Republic

03&04 22-23 May Imola, Italy

05&06 26-27 June Spa, Belgium

07&08 10-11 July Magny-Cours, France

09&10 25-26 September Navarra, Spain

11&12 2-3 October Monza, Italy

FOLLOW US ON THE WEB

Join the AutoGP community on the web. To keep you posted with all the news from thechampionship we daily update our website www.autogp.org, but we also give you thechance to take a sneak peek in the backstage of the championship thanks to outfacebook page www.facebook.com/AutoGP and our Twitter accountwww.twitter.com/Auto_GP.Our facebook page has already more than 1.400 fans! Want to discuss with them aboutthe championship? You just have to join!

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Portraits

EdoardoPiscopo

JanCharouz

DuncanTappy

JulianLeal

RomainGrosjean

JonnyReid

CelsoMiguez

Giorgio

Pantano