Risk variant with dry set-up unfortunately didn’t pay off
The starting position was anything but easy. Andreas Zuber took up the last GP2-run this season from last place due to his drop out through no fault of his own on Saturday when Spaniard Javier Villa had kicked him off the circuit in the first chicane, turning Zuber in into the first casualty of the race. But the Moser Medical Group driver didn’t let such problems spoil his driving-fun.
Thanks to a very good start the 24-year-old Styrian immediately made up four places. And he kept dancing to the same tune, moving up to 17th place in the second lap already. The tenth of 21 laps then saw him already in tenth place as well as reaching best lap time of the whole field at that point. But then things changed for the worse.
Zuber: "We chose a risky variant because of our starting position and took up the race on a dry set-up. Just as I wanted to change to slicks it once more started to rain slightly. But soon it began to dry up again and my soft tyres were at the end of their tether. During the last ten minutes all I could do was to try and defend my position. It wasn’t exactly brilliant but the best we could do under the circumstances."
Even though the GP2 season 2008 wasn’t a learing year for Zuber he nevertheless gathered a lot of experience. Especially the knowledge that the rookies plow through the field like there is no tomorrow.
Whether the Moser Medical Group driver will compete in the GP2 series next year, too, will be decided within the next weeks. Until then Andreas Zuber will try his luck in the super league which will already continue the coming weekend with the second run at the Nürburgring in Germany.
The last winner of this season was Davide Valsecci who finished ahead of Roldan Rodriguez and Romain Grosjean. Giorgio Pantano came in fifth but had already prematurely secured the title in the GP2 series on Saturday. Zuber takes ninth place in the final standings. In the manufacturer ranking Piquet Sports reached third place behind Campos and iSport.
Result of the GP2 sprint race in Monza:
1. Davide Valsecchi 38:09,871 min., 2. Roldan Rodriguez +9,004, 3. Romain Grosjean +9,537, 4. Pastor Maldonado +9,537, 5. Giorgio Pantano +10,190, 6. Jerome D‘Ambrosio +16,731, … 10. Andreas Zuber +33,641
Final ranking:
1. Giorgio Pantano 76, 2. Bruno Senna 64, 3. Lucas di Grassi 63, 4. Romain Grosjean 62, 5. Pastor Maldonado 60, 6. Sebastien Buemi 50, 7. Vitaly Petrov 39, 8. Alvaro Parente 34, 9. Andreas Zuber 32, 10. Karun Chandhok 31.
www.andreas-zuber.com
- Andreas Walk, Armin Holenia, Martin Meyer-
photos will be on automobilsport.com under PHOTOS - GP2 SERIES
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