Nissany good for 19th on grid - in GP2!

Chanoch Nissany managed to set a practice time that would have earned him 19th on the GP2 grid in Hungary. Unfortunately the Minardi-Cosworth PS05 he was driving is not eligible to take part in GP2 events...

By happy co-incidence, the property developer celebrated his 42nd birthday on Friday, and the expensive present to himself was his first run on a grand prix weekend. Quite how he justified a superlicence remains one of the great mysteries of all time, however, especially as his testing schedule included an infamous collision with one of his Minardi team-mates at Mugello.

The Budapest-based Israeli did as well as expected, spinning off in the first session after setting a time of 1min 34.319secs. At the time, that was seven seconds off the mark set by team-mate Robert Doornbos and, by the end of the day, had fallen to nearly eleven seconds off the Dutchman's eventual best.

During the lunch break, the Minardi crew discovered that the car had a technical gremlin, apparently with the gearbox, which meant that it could not participate in the afternoon action. While that was a disappointment to Nissany, it was good news for Paul Stoddart's bank balance, and for Doornbos and Christijan Albers, because it ensured that the T-car stayed in one piece for the rest of the day...

Asked if he had now fulfilled his dream, Nissany told Crash.net that he 'didn't have dreams, just aims'.

"It was really impressive to drive on a race weekend, because the atmosphere cannot be compared to a normal test," he revealed "And I was driving in Hungary with a lot of fans, so I'm really happy for that. Until I spun out, it was okay. I hope I will have more chances to drive."