There is genuine pressure being felt the length of the field after the first three rounds. At the top, Piquet Jr had a disappointing weekend in Germany, and is now followed
very closely by both Hamilton and Lapierre, the Frenchman still to get the monkey of not winning a GP2 race off his back. All three will be gunning for glory in Barcelona, with Piquet, in particular, hoping that he can overcome the tyre and brake problems that have cost him valuable points in the last two weekends. The Brazilian at least emerged unscathed from his feature race shunt at the 'Ring, but called it a day before the flag in race two before problems with his rubber caused a possible repeat.
Hamilton's success in Germany has caused many to ponder the possible return of ART Grand Prix as
the force in GP2, the French squad having taken its time to get used to the revised slicks-and-wing package introduced to this year's series. Such was the British rookie's dominance at the Nurburgring, however, that there will be a few furrowed brows up and down the pit-lane - not least, perhaps, on the face of ART old hand Alex Premat, who appeared to have no answer to his upstart team-mate on Saturday.
Gianmaria Bruni, Ernesto Viso and Michael Ammermuller have all won races this year, but have not been as consistent as either of the front three, although Viso's 100 per cent scoring record was only broken by his stall at the start of race two last weekend. Bruni was a dominant winner at Imola, but suffered a nightmare weekend in Germany, while Ammermuller has yet to repeat his surprise Valencia success, despite revisiting the podium. Viso, meanwhile, needs to record higher finishes in the feature races, where the big points are handed out, rather than the sixth spots he has achieved in both the lat two weekends.
