Saturday, 29th September 2007

Frenchman heads DAMS 1-2 in opening session of stand-alone finale.

Nicolas Lapierre set the early pace in the final GP2 Series weekend of the year, heading a DAMS 1-2 at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia.

The French 'veteran' claimed top spot just ahead of rookie team-mate Kazuki Nakajima and the Minardi Piquet duo of Xandi Negrao and Roldan Rodriguez as the title contenders took a temporary back seat. Lapierre's best lap of 1min 19.930secs was set halfway through the session as he and Nakajima traded fastest laps. The Frenchman ultimately came out on top by less than a tenth, with Negrao a similar margin behind Nakajima.

The session opened, in fine conditions, with Mike Conway and title favourite Timo Glock battling over top spot, although both Ho-Pin Tung - no doubt buoyed by his invite to try BMW Sauber's F1 car in China - and Marcos Martinez applying the early pressure before the DAMS duo moved to the fore.

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There were remarkably few incidents in the half-hour session, although both DPR drivers had minor spins at turn eleven before Martinez beached himself at the same corner. Giorgio Pantano, contending for third spot in the standings this weekend, briefly spun at turn six, but the most notable incident belonged to Markus Niemela, who beached his car at the final turn and brought out the red flags.

The session resumed with six minutes remaining, but the time available allowed for little change in the order, with Rodriguez claiming fourth behind team-mate Negrao and ahead of Pantano, Glock, Luca Filippi, Andi Zuber, Conway and Lucas di Grassi.

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