The 24-year-old Styrian finishes the sprint race in eighth place
At today’s sprint race in Magny Cours, the eighth run to the GP2 season 2008, Andreas Zuber had hoped for a podium place after having lost four places at yesterday’s start due to clutch problems.
But during light rain the 24-year-old Styrian once again didn’t get off ideally at the start at 10.30 since he had chosen a dry set-up and therefore had to let two cars pass before entering the first turn in sixth place, ahead of his Piquet Sports teammate Pastor Maldonado.
When it stopped raining shortly after the start a lot of cars came in for a pit stop, as did Moser Medical Group-driver Zuber in round five to change to slicks. This caused him to drop back and he unfortunately got stuck for a long time in the back of the field in 13th place.
During the last third of the sprint race Andreas Zuber passed Vitaly Petrov by a spectacular manoeuvre in a chicane. And in round 18 and 19 the Styrian even managed a double-strike: first he went past Javier Villa and shortly thereafter overtook Ben Henley, as well.
Thus he moved up to tenth place. Following this he once more really put his foot down and passed two further drivers, among them the surpisingly strong Estonian Marko Asmer at his GP2 premiere. Thus Andreas Zuber finished the sprint race in eighth place.
"Unfortunatly I had a rather moderate start. My car had a dry set-up but I took up the race on rain tyres. Then the rain let up and I came in for a pit-stop to change to slicks. Thereby I lost a lot of places and dropped back to 13th place.
Unfortunately the rain then started again so that I only was able to tap the full potential of the car at the end of the race. The car was much better than yesterday which makes me optimistic for the next run in Silverstone", Zuber explained.
The winner of the sprint race was Swiss Sebastien Buemi who, like the other drivers on the podium, had taken up the run on slicks. Thus these drivers were spared a pit-stop since the circuit dryed up during the race.
Result of the GP2 sprint race in Magny Cours: 01. Sebastien Buemi, 2. Yelmer Burrman + 6,639, 3. Luca Filippi + 23,953, 4. Luca di Grassi + 24,479, 5. Bruno Senna + 29,439, 6. Mike Conway + 35,924, 7. Pastor Maldonado + 38,074, 8. Andreas Zuber + 43,060, 9. Kamui Kobayashi + 45,558, 10. Javier Villa + 46,756,
Driver overall standings in the GP2 (after eight runs): 01. Giorgio Pantano 35 points, 2. Bruno Senna 28, 3. Sebastian Buemi 20, 4. Romain Grosjean and Alvaro Parente 19 each, 6. Pastor Maldonado 18, 7. Andreas Zuber and Vitaly Petrov 17 points each.
The next run to the GP2 series will take place on July 5 and 6 in Silverstone.
-Andreas Walk, Armin Holenia, Martin Meyer-
Photos will be on automobilsport.com under PHOTOS - GP2 Series
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