2008–09 GP2 Asia Series explained

The 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season was the second season of the GP2 Asia Series. It began on 18 October 2008 and ended on 26 April 2009 and consisted of eleven races at six events.

Season summary

All teams from the 2008 GP2 Series season except for Racing Engineering took part in the competition, with the thirteenth slot being filled by Qi-Meritus Mahara. The reigning champion Romain Grosjean did not defend his title.

Kamui Kobayashi clinched the title with a fourth place at the penultimate race in Bahrain. 8 different winners were in 12 races: Kamui Kobayashi become champion, after Japanese won in two consecutive feature races at Dubai Autodrome, and at Bahrain International Circuit.

Diego Nunes won the last two feature races at Sepang International Circuit, and at Bahrain International Circuit. Roldán Rodríguez wins in first race of the season. Nico Hülkenberg, Luiz Razia, Vitaly Petrov, Davide Valsecchi, and Sergio Pérez each other won one race.

Entry list

All of the teams used the Dallara GP2/05 chassis with Renault-badged 4.0 litre (244 cu in) naturally-aspirated Mecachrome V8 engines order and with tyres supplied by Bridgestone.

Team		Driver name	Rounds
ART Grand Prix	1	Sakon Yamamoto^[1]	All
	2	Nelson Philippe^[2]	1
		Pastor Maldonado^[3]	2, 5–6
		Nico Hülkenberg^[4]	3–4
Trust Team Arden (1–2) Arden International Motorsport (3–6)	3	Luiz Razia^[5]	All
4	Mika Mäki^[6]	1
	nowrap	Renger van der Zande^[7]	2
	Edoardo Mortara^[8]	3–6
Barwa International Campos Team	5	Vitaly Petrov^[9]	All
	6	Sergio Pérez	All
DAMS	7	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	All
	8	Kamui Kobayashi	All
	9	Giedo van der Garde^[10]	All
	10	Hamad Al Fardan^[11]	All
Super Nova Racing	11	Javier Villa	All
	12	James Jakes	All
Fisichella Motor Sport International	14	Andreas Zuber	1–2
		Rodolfo González^[12]	3–6
	15	Kevin Chen	All
Durango	16	Davide Valsecchi^[13]	All
	17	Carlos Iaconelli^[14]	1
		Michael Dalle Stelle^[15]	2–6
My Team Qi-Meritus Mahara	18	Alex Yoong^[16]	1–2
		Marco Bonanomi^[17]	3–6
	19	Earl Bamber^[18]	1–3
		Álvaro Parente^[19]	4–6
Piquet GP	20	Roldán Rodríguez^[20]	All
	21	Diego Nunes^[21]	All
DPR	22	Michael Herck^[22]	All
	23	Yuhi Sekiguchi	1
		Giacomo Ricci^[23]	2–6
BCN Competición*	24	Hiroki Yoshimoto	1
	25	Luca Filippi^[24]	1
Ocean Racing Technology*	24	Yelmer Buurman^[25]	2–5
		Karun Chandhok^[26]	6
	25
		Fabrizio Crestani	2–6
Trident Racing	26	Giacomo Ricci	1
		Alberto Valerio	2
		Frankie Provenzano^[27]	3–4
		Ricardo Teixeira^[28]	5–6
	27	Chris van der Drift	1–2
		Adrián Vallés	3
		Davide Rigon^[29]	4–6

* – team was known as BCN Competición at round one in Shanghai, before Tiago Monteiro bought over the team's assets and renamed it as Ocean Racing Technology.^[30]

Calendar

On 12 July, GP2 Series organisers announced a provisional calendar for their second season. Unlike the first season of the GP2 Asia Series, this season will start prior to the new year, and be expanded to six events from the previous five. The Indonesian round has been dropped, while Bahrain earns a second event and Shanghai earns its first GP2 races. Shanghai will also host the official GP2 Asia Series test session prior to the start of the season.^[31]

The sprint race of the second round of the championship – at the Dubai Autodrome – was cancelled due to flooding.^[32]

On 17 December, an alteration was made to the calendar, with the Losail International Circuit in Qatar replacing the February meeting in Dubai. The meeting was also moved to February 12–14 because the original date on the calendar was unsuitable, due to MotoGP testing. This event introduced night racing to GP2, following the circuit's lead with MotoGP and its support classes and also Formula One's night race in Singapore.^[33]

Race Calendar

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winning Driver	Winning Team	Report
1	R1	Shanghai International Circuit	18 October	nowrap	Roldán Rodríguez	Kamui Kobayashi	nowrap	Roldán Rodríguez	Piquet GP	Report
	R2	19 October		nowrap		Davide Valsecchi	Durango
2	R1	Dubai Autodrome	nowrap	5 December	nowrap	Kamui Kobayashi	nowrap	Kamui Kobayashi	nowrap	Kamui Kobayashi	DAMS	Report
	R2		6 December	Race cancelled
3	R1	Bahrain International Circuit	23 January	Nico Hülkenberg	Kamui Kobayashi	Kamui Kobayashi	DAMS	Report
	R2		24 January			Sergio Pérez	Barwa International Campos Team
4	R1	Losail International Circuit	13 February	Nico Hülkenberg		Nico Hülkenberg	ART Grand Prix	Report
	R2		14 February		Sergio Pérez	Sergio Pérez	Barwa International Campos Team
5	R1	Sepang International Circuit	4 April	Jérôme d'Ambrosio		Diego Nunes	Piquet GP	Report
	R2		5 April		Álvaro Parente	Vitaly Petrov	nowrap		Barwa International Campos Team
6	R1	Bahrain International Circuit	25 April	nowrap	Kamui Kobayashi	nowrap	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Diego Nunes	Piquet GP	Report
	R2		26 April		nowrap	Jérôme d'Ambrosio	Luiz Razia	nowrap	Arden International Motorsport

Championship standings

Scoring systemPoints are awarded to the top 8 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 6 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race will also receive two points, and one point is given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points are awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race.

Feature race points

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	Pole	FL
Points	10	8	6	5	4	3	2	1	2	1

Sprint race pointsPoints are awarded to the top 6 classified finishers.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	FL
Points	6	5	4	3	2	1	1

Drivers' Championship

Pos Driver SHI DUB BHR LSL SEP BHR Points 1 Kamui Kobayashi 2 Ret 1 C 1 6 4 18 2 7 4 5 56 2 Jérôme d'Ambrosio 9 5 7 C 2 3 5 7 Ret DSQ 3 2 36 3 Roldán Rodríguez 1 6 3 C 6 23 Ret 17 4 12 2 Ret 35 4 Davide Valsecchi 8 1 2 C 5 2 6 5 8 3 16 Ret 34 5 Vitaly Petrov 5 Ret 5 C 10 12 3 2 6 1 19 11 28 6 Nico Hülkenberg 4 4 1 3 27 7 Sergio Pérez Ret 7 6 C 8 1 2 1 Ret 6 12 9 26 8 Diego Nunes 12 Ret Ret C 13 22 11 12 1 4 1 6 24 9 Sakon Yamamoto 3 14 8 C 17 11 Ret 14 12 Ret 6 4 13 10 Javier Villa 4 3 9 C 9 5 13 10 19 18 15 12 12 11 Edoardo Mortara 3 8 7 4 Ret 17 Ret 16 11 12 Giedo van der Garde 10 DNS 4 C 7 14 12 8 14 10 5 7 11 13 Luiz Razia Ret 17 10 C 14 9 8 6 Ret Ret 8 1 9 14 Earl Bamber 6 2 Ret C 11 7 8 15 Pastor Maldonado Ret C 7 2 Ret Ret 7 16 James Jakes Ret 11 12 C 22 Ret 9 9 3 Ret 10 14 7 17 Davide Rigon 14 15 Ret 13 7 3 6 18 Chris van der Drift 7 4 Ret C 5 19 Yelmer Buurman Ret C Ret 13 Ret DNS 5 11 4 20 Hamad Al Fardan 15 Ret Ret C 12 Ret Ret Ret 9 5 Ret 17 2 21 Álvaro Parente 17 16 11 9 Ret 13 1 22 Marco Bonanomi 20 10 16 11 Ret 14 14 8 0 23 Rodolfo González 16 Ret Ret 19 10 8 Ret Ret 0 24 Hiroki Yoshimoto Ret 8 0 25 Alex Yoong 14 9 Ret C 0 26 Karun Chandhok 9 Ret 0 27 Giacomo Ricci 13 Ret 13 C Ret 16 Ret 13 16 15 11 10 0 28 Fabrizio Crestani 14 C Ret 17 10 21 15 16 18 15 0 29 Mika Mäki Ret 10 0 30 Carlos Iaconelli 11 Ret 0 31 Renger van der Zande 11 C 0 32 Yuhi Sekiguchi Ret 12 0 33 Michael Herck 16 16 15 C 18 18 15 Ret 13 Ret 13 Ret 0 34 Nelson Philippe 17 13 0 35 Frankie Provenzano 15 15 19 20 0 36 Kevin Chen Ret 15 18 C 21 21 18 23 20 Ret Ret 18 0 37 Alberto Valerio 16 C 0 38 Ricardo Teixeira 17 19 17 Ret 0 39 Michael Dalle Stelle 17 C 19 20 20 22 18 20 Ret 19 0 40 Adrián Vallés Ret 19 0 – Andreas Zuber Ret Ret Ret C 0 – Luca Filippi Ret Ret 0 Pos Driver SHI DUB BHR LSL SEP BHR Points

Notes:

• † — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Teams' Championship

valign=middle Pos valign=middle Team valign=middle Car No. SHI DUB BHR LSL SEP BHR valign=middle Points 1 DAMS 7 9 5 7 C 2 3 5 7 Ret DSQ 3 2 92 8 2 Ret 1 C 1 6 4 18 2 7 4 5 2 Piquet GP 20 1 6 3 C 6 23 Ret 17 4 12 2 Ret 59 21 12 Ret Ret C 13 22 11 12 1 4 1 6 3 Barwa International Campos Team 5 5 Ret 5 C 10 12 3 2 6 1 19 11 54 6 Ret 7 6 C 8 1 2 1 Ret 6 12 9 4 ART Grand Prix 1 3 14 8 C 17 11 Ret 14 12 Ret 6 4 47 2 17 13 Ret C 4 4 1 3 7 2 Ret Ret 5 Durango 16 8 1 2 C 5 2 6 5 8 3 16 Ret 34 17 11 Ret 17 C 19 20 20 22 18 20 Ret 19 6 Trust Team Arden (1–2) Arden International Motorsport (3–6) 3 Ret 17 10 C 14 9 8 6 Ret Ret 8 1 20 4 Ret 10 11 C 3 8 7 4 Ret 17 Ret 16 7 Super Nova Racing 11 4 3 9 C 9 5 13 10 19 18 15 12 19 12 Ret 11 12 C 22 Ret 9 9 3 Ret 10 14 8 9 10 DNS 4 C 7 14 12 8 14 10 5 7 13 10 15 Ret Ret C 12 Ret Ret Ret 9 5 Ret 17 9 Trident Racing 26 13 Ret 16 C 15 15 19 20 17 13 17 3 11 27 7 4 Ret C Ret 19 14 15 Ret 19 7 Ret 10 My Team Qi-Meritus Mahara 18 14 9 Ret C 20 10 16 11 Ret 14 14 8 9 19 6 2 Ret C 11 7 17 16 11 9 Ret 13 11 Ocean Racing Technology 24 Ret C Ret 13 Ret DNS 5 11 9 Ret 4 25 14 C Ret 17 10 21 15 16 18 15 12 Fisichella Motor Sport International 14 Ret Ret Ret C 16 Ret Ret 19 10 8 Ret Ret 0 15 Ret 15 18 C 21 21 18 23 20 Ret Ret 18 13 DPR 22 16 16 15 C 18 18 15 Ret 13 Ret 13 Ret 0 23 Ret 12 13 C Ret 16 Ret 13 16 15 11 10 14 BCN Competición 24 Ret 8 0 25 Ret Ret valign=middle Pos valign=middle Team valign=middle Car No. SHI DUB BHR LSL SEP BHR valign=middle Points

Notes:

• † — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

External links

• GP2 Series official website
• GP2 Asia Series fansite

Notes and References

1. http://www.art-grandprix.com/en/ Sakon Yamamoto: official GP2 Asia driver of ART
2. Freeman . Glenn . October 2008 . Japan leads GP2 Asia charge . . 194 . 3 . 22–23 .
3. News: Maldonado to race for ART in 2009. autosport.com. 2008-11-10. 2008-11-11.
4. News: Hulkenberg takes pole on GP2 debut. Autosport.com. 2009-01-22. 2009-01-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20090124205929/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72942. 24 January 2009 . live.
5. News: Razia joins Arden, Villa to Super Nova . GPUpdate.net. 2008-10-02. 2011-01-29.
6. Web site: GP2: Trust Team Arden Confirm Mika Maki and Luiz Razia for GP2 Asia 2008/09 . 2008-10-10 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081013224048/http://www.gp2series.com/en/website/2008gp2series/news/newsasia/newsdetail.php?articleid=2104 . 2008-10-13 . dead .
7. News: Van der Zande to replace Maki in Dubai. GPUpdate.net. 2008-10-27. 2011-01-29.
8. News: Mortara signs for Arden. autosport.com. 2009-01-21 . 2009-01-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20090131192805/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72920. 31 January 2009 . live.
9. http://www.camposracing.com/pilotos.php?t=2 Campos Racing
10. News: Van der Garde joins iSport for Asia Series. GPUpdate.net. 2008-10-02. 2011-01-29.
11. News: Al Fardan joins GFH iSport. GPUpdate.net. 2008-09-23. 2011-01-29.
12. News: Gonzalez joins Fisichella for GP2 Asia . autosport.com. 2009-01-21. 2009-01-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20090125212442/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72921. 25 January 2009 . live.
13. News: Durango and Valsecchi extend contract. GPUpdate.net. 2008-09-23. 2011-01-29.
14. http://www.durango.it/en/press/gp2/389.html GP2: Iaconelli to team with valsecchi at shanghai
15. News: Durango signs teen for Asia campaign. crash.net. 2008-12-01. 2008-12-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20081205185041/http://www.crash.net/motorsport/gp2/news/172281-0/durango_signs_teen_for_asia_campaign.html. 5 December 2008 . live.
16. http://www.gp2series.com/en//website/2008gp2series/news/newsasia/newsdetail.php?articleid=2103 My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara signs Alex Yoong
17. News: Bonanomi replaces Yoong at Meritus. autosport.com. 2009-01-17. 2009-01-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20090122023322/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72849. 22 January 2009 . live.
18. https://archive.today/20120526070110/http://www.crash.net/motorsport/gp2/news/170252-0/meritus_confirms_kiwi_to_second_seat.html GP2: Meritus confirms Kiwi to second seat
19. News: Parente joins Meritus for Qatar. autosport.com. 2009-02-11. 2009-02-11. https://web.archive.org/web/20090214102626/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73216. 14 February 2009 . live.
20. http://www.gpracingcars.com/template/DetailComunicatiStampa.asp?IDFolder=132&IDOggetto=2740&SottoCategoria=&LN=IT GP2: Piquet GP & Rodríguez together for GP2 Asia and GP2 Main
21. http://www.gpracingcars.com/template/DetailComunicatiStampa.asp?IDFolder=132&IDOggetto=2743&SottoCategoria=&LN=IT GP2: Diego Nunes second car in GP2 Asia Series
22. News: Sekiguchi joins DPR for Asia campaign. crash.net. https://archive.today/20120630161305/http://www.crash.net/motorsport/gp2/news/170530-0/sekiguchi_joins_dpr_for_asia_campaign.html. dead. June 30, 2012. 2008-10-15. 2008-10-15.
23. News: Driver changes aplenty in Dubai. crash.net. 2008-12-04. 2008-12-04. https://web.archive.org/web/20081206131045/http://www.crash.net/motorsport/gp2/news/172365-0/driver_changes_aplenty_in_dubai.html. 6 December 2008 . live.
24. http://www.crash.net/motorsport/gp2/news/169944-0/filippi_back_with_bcn.html GP2: Filippi back with BCN
25. News: Ocean sign Crestani as second driver . autosport.com. 2008-12-02. 2008-12-02. https://web.archive.org/web/20081205062607/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72299. 5 December 2008 . live.
26. News: 08/09 GP2 Asia Series – Round 6 . . 2009-04-23 . 2009-04-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090502004349/http://www.gp2series.com/en/website/2008gp2series/media_secure/media/news/newsasia/newsdetail.php?articleid=2278 . May 2, 2009 . dead .
27. News: Trident names new pairing.. crash.net. https://archive.today/20120801153141/http://www.crash.net/motorsport/gp2/news/173415-0/trident_names_new_pairing.html. dead. August 1, 2012. 2009-01-21. 2009-01-21.
28. News: 08/09 GP2 Asia Series – Round 5 . . 2009-04-02 . 2009-04-02 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090502004323/http://www.gp2series.com/en/website/2008gp2series/media_secure/media/news/newsasia/newsdetail.php?articleid=2261 . May 2, 2009 . dead .
29. News: Rigon replaces Valles at Trident. autosport.com. 2009-02-10. 2009-02-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20090213214643/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73204. 13 February 2009 . live.
30. News: Tiago Monteiro confirms the acquisition of GP2 team . tiagomonteiro.com . 2008-11-27 . 2008-11-27 .
31. Web site: GP2 Asia 2008–09 Calendar . UpdateF1.com . 2008-07-12 . 2008-07-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080820071354/http://formula-1.updatesport.com/news/article/1215864543/formula_one/F1juniors/GP2-Asia-2008-2009-Calender/view.html . 2008-08-20 . dead .
32. News: Floods force cancellation of Dubai race. autosport.com. 2008-12-06. 2008-12-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20081208015347/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72362. 8 December 2008 . live.
33. News: Qatar night race for Asia Series . autosport.com. 2008-12-17. 2008-12-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20081219123931/http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72518. 19 December 2008 . live.