Glock takes brilliant win at Monza

Timo Glock put on a clinical display of motor racing precision to carve his way through the field and claim his fourth win of the season in race two at Monza, before comfortably controlling the second half of the race to lead Luca Filippi and Bruno Senna all the way to the chequered flag.

The win was set up by a solid start, which saw poleman Ricardo Risatti hold onto the top spot ahead of a storming Senna, who moved up from fifth on the grid to second at the first chicane ahead of Sebastien Buemi, a fast charging Giorgio Pantano, Glock and Vitaly Petrov, who had Filippi on his tail by the end of the lap after blasting past Javier Villa, while behind them Mike Conway spun at the parabolica and was tagged by Adrian Zaugg, who soon retired with a terminal car.

Pantano was not waiting for anyone as he attempted to bring home his second consecutive double win at his home track, powering by Senna next time around on the front straight to put himself behind the rookie race leader. Unfortunately his patience was in short order on the next lap as he tried to push through the inside of Risatti at the first chicane: the pair touched and the Italian was spun around, dropping back to sixth place just in front of his teammate before getting away again.

With Senna not quite up with the race leader he was soon under even more pressure, this time in the shape of Glock's iSport machine. The German was looking for a way past but showing the patience that Pantano lacked, while behind him Filippi blew by Buemi into the chicane after picking up a good tow through the parabolica, and with the Swiss driver's teammate Lucas di Grassi having fought his way up from 13th he had no choice but to wave the title contender through into fifth.

Senna's luck ran out as the pair approached the parabolica corner next time around, with Glock blasting by and looking almost certain to add another win to his collection now that Pantano was outside of the points, with Filippi also taking the opportunity to move up at Senna's expense on the next lap at the tricky Ascari complex.

The inevitable happened one lap later: Glock blasted into the lead on the front straight, with Filippi and Senna barging their way by Risatti at the first chicane on either side before the long run to curva grande. The Brazilian had a go at his rival into the turn but left his braking a little too late: he was soon sailing across the gravel and came out ahead of Filippi, but had to cede the position for cutting the corner.

Pantano hadn't given up either: he was sharply through Buemi and back into the points, while a fierce battle erupted behind him between Andi Zuber and Karun Chandhok, with the pair swapping positions lap after lap but neither driver willing to concede the fight. Ahead of them Risatti was falling backwards and was soon passed by di Grassi, and then had Pantano on his tail coming into the first chicane: under pressure he messed up his braking and just tagged the back of di Grassi before putting himself into the wall and out of the race after limping back to the pits.

But the Italian wasn't making life easy for himself: next time by he missed his own braking point and ran straight at the chicane, allowing Buemi to get back past: the Italian was clearly faster and harrying his rookie rival all over the track for the next six laps before he finally succumbed to the pressure at the second chicane when Buemi missed his braking point and Pantano ran into his tailpipe, spinning the Swiss driver out of the race but breaking the Italian's front wing in the process.

With Filippi catching Glock at the front but unable to get into a position to challenge for the position, his countryman had clearly decided a little thing like a broken wing wasn't going to slow him down: for lap after lap he refused to come in for a new nose, hoping to hold on over the closing laps for a point or two despite being shown the black and orange flag. Zuber, having finally shaken off the dogged challenge from Chandhok, was in a position to get past the ailing Campos car, but a big lock up at the first chicane undid that work.

But out at the front Glock had just eased away from Filippi, with both drivers considering discretion to be the better part of valour as they headed for the finish line, Glock crossing it 1.8 seconds ahead of Filippi as the chequered flag dropped. Senna was the next driver by, a further 6.6 seconds back but delighted to make an overdue return to the podium, while di Grassi finishing fourth after a storming drive to banish the disappointments of yesterday's race from his mind.

On the final lap Zuber managed to find a way past Pantano to claim fifth position, but Chandhok had no rewards to take home after finishing 0.1 seconds behind Pantano, who just held onto sixth, while Adam Carroll claimed the point for fastest lap.

And it was all smiles on the podium as Glock claimed another win and, in so doing, extended his lead in the championship, leading di Grassi now by 78 points to 67 with two weekends remaining this year.

Pos Driver Team Gap Laps
1 T. Glock iSport – 21
2 L. Filippi Super Nova 00'01"814 21
3 B. Senna Arden 00'08"470 21
4 L. Di Grassi ART 00'12"554 21
5 A. Zuber iSport 00'19"240 21
6 G. Pantano Campos 00'21"473 21
7 K. Chandhok Durango 00'21"642 21
8 A. Soucek DPR 00'22"853 21
9 R. Rodriguez Minardi 00'25"648 21
10 M. Conway Super Nova 00'25"739 21
11 K. Hirate Trident 00'26"309 21
12 N. Markus BCN Comp. 00'33"507 21
13 V. Petrov Campos 00'39"292 21
14 S. Buemi ART 00'42"306 21
15 A. Carroll FMS 01'19"863 21
16 H. Tung BCN Comp. – 20
17 N. Lapierre DAMS – 20
18 K. Nakajima DAMS – 20
19 B. Garcia Durango – 20
20 J. Tahinci FMS – 20
21 R. Risatti Trident – 10
22 J. Villa Racing Eng. – 9
23 A. Zaugg Arden – 2
24 A. Negṛo Minardi Р1
25 M. Martinez Racing Eng. – 0