Carroll, meanwhile, lifted himself to a share of ninth spot by taking 15 points away from Hungary, and is only eleven points shy of Filippi in third with eight races in which to close the gap on those ahead of him.
Bruno Senna, whose campaign has gone off the boil of late, shares ninth with Carroll, the pair one point shy of Pastor Maldonado - who will be absent injured this weekend - three off Andreas Zuber and four from Giorgio Pantano, setting up an intriguing midfield championship battle alongside that at the top of the table. Pantano will be hoping that Campos Grand Prix rediscovers reliability to go with his pace - and is not too distracted by stories linking it to
Super Aguri in
F1 - while Zuber will be keen to recapture the form that saw him claim a maiden GP2 win in last year's Istanbul sprint race as he attempts to close the gap on iSport team-mate Glock.
Fans suffering GP2 withdrawal symptoms over the last three weeks will see Istanbul Park as the perfect venue for the resumption of the season, having played host to four of the most astonishing and enthralling races in the championship’s history.
Last year’s action will be remembered not so much for Nelsinho Piquet’s dominant race one masterclass or Zuber’s debut win as it will for Lewis Hamilton’s incredible second position in race two, which came after a recovery drive prompted by a second lap spin that left the Briton at the back of the field. That drive still rates, in Hamilton's own words, as one of the defining moments of his career, even though it did not result in victory.
Having gone through its first two seasons with its field largely intact at the end, the 2007 campaign will see two further driver changes this weekend, although both are, in fairness, prompted by injury.
