Reid Fourth at Spa

Competing in the third round of the Auto GP Series at Spa, Belgium, Jonny Reid was fourth in the first of two races held over the weekend.

Continuing his strong form Reid qualified third fastest on Saturday and added a seventh in race two to remain ninth in the championship table.

Race 1

Romain Grosjean took a well deserved win in his Auto GP maiden race. The French driver had dominated practice and grabbed victory leading the lights to flag ahead of Luca Filippi.

Third was Reid’s team mate Giorgio Pantano, just 2 second adrift from Filippi. The SuperNova former F.1 driver made up one place at the start passing Jan Charouz at the end of the Kemmel straight.

Reid took fourth position, after a fierce fight with Jan Charouz. The kiwi driver had a bad start and Charouz passed him taking an advantage in the first part of the race. After the mandatory pit-stop Reid started to recover and on lap six made an attempt to pass on the inside of the “La Source” hairpin. Reid and Charouz were side by side for the whole downhill section to Eau Rouge and the Czech driver of Charouz-Gravity Racing was able to stay in front. Reid eventually got passed on lap 10, clinching 4th place.

Edoardo Piscopo kept his series lead thanks to a P6 finish ahead of Julian Leal.

The AutoGP Series is using the original Lola A1GP cars. The tyres have been switched to Michelin and the cars now come equipped with an updated aero package while the engine is the original Zytec.

Race 2

After winning his first race at Imola the Brazilian driver Carlos Iaconelli repeated the feat in Spa clinching success in race 2. Starting from pole position thanks to his eighth place in race 1, Iaconelli had a good start and kept the lead for the whole race, despite two Safety-Car periods that brought the field together. The Durango driver kept his head resisting pressure from race 1 winner, Romain Grosjean, in the last few laps.

Grosjean had made a great start making up four positions on the first lap and attacking Edoardo Piscop and Jan Charouz for second, eventually passing both. Charouz took third ahead of Piscopo.

Fifth place went to for Luca Filippi after an amazing duel with Giorgio Pantano and Jonny Reid. After the second Safety-Car period, caused by Stefano Bizzarri and Celso Miguez making contact and crashing in Blanchimont, the three drivers were really close to each other. Pantano seemed quicker, but in the last two laps Filippi first passed Reid entering Eau Rouge, and then hunted Pantano on the last corners of the race. Filippi was faster out of Blanchimont, and passed Pantano in the Bus Stop chicane. Due to this move, Pantano had a slow exit from the chicane and Reid nearly managed to pass him, closing just 0.004 behind!

Fabrizio Crestani was eight, in front of Duncan Tappy and Adrien Tambay, while Fabio Onidi retired with a broken driveshaft.

Source: www.nzracer.com