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Morbidelli wins first Speedcar Series night race, Villeneuve finishes 5th

Posted on 13. Feb, 2009 by webmestre in Asia, Uncategorized

Morbidelli wins first Speedcar Series night race
Gianni Morbidelli won the first-ever Speedcar Series night race at Losail in Qatar
on Friday night, heading home fellow Italian ex-Formula 1 racer Vitantonio Liuzzi.
The rolling start was a bit chaotic, with poleman Heinz-Harald Frentzen rushing
off into the lead as fellow front-row man Jacques Villeneuve didn’t make the best
of starts, allowing Jean Alesi to grab second on the run to Turn 1.
Frentzen ran wide into the opening corner, allowing Alesi to snatch the lead. Morbidelli
ran third, as fourth-placed qualifier Marco Melandri suffered a spin in the opening
corners and the MotoGP star dropped to the tail of the field.
Morbidelli grabbed second, just before Frentzen pulled off the circuit with a mechanical
failure, and then jumped into the lead when Alesi ran wide. Further back, Liuzzi
- who was earlier delayed when a backmarker punted Villeneuve into a spin in front
of him – took third from Johnny Herbert, and set off in pursuit of Alesi.
Vitantonio caught him at half distance, which sparked a pass-and-repass battle,
which Liuzzi decided in his favour two laps later.
With 12 minutes of the race remaining, Morbidelli was 9.2secs in the lead, but he
slashed that down to 2.8secs by the finish. Herbert took third from Alesi after
a great battle in the closing laps, Alesi eventually losing the place when he slid
wide at Turn 1.

J. Villeneuve

“It was great to win here,” said Morbidelli. “I knew I had the pace over Jean and
Heinz-Harald; I knew I was fast. When I got away I managed to pull a big gap to
them, and then it was a matter of not making any big mistakes.”
Liuzzi said: “After gearbox problems in qualifying, this was our true pace today.
I had some really nice and tough fights, but I had a problem when I came to lap
a car, which hit another car in front of me. After I had got back ahead of Johnny,
and then passed Jean, Gianni had already gone.”
Third-placed Herbert said: “It was a great fight with Jean. I got past him, then
I made a mistake, but was able to get him back again.”
Villeneuve never recovered from his bad start and collision with a backmarker, but
still finished fifth, ahead of Hasher Al Maktoum, Thomas Biagi and Melandri, who
suffered another spin but just beat Christopher Zoechling to the finish line.
Race two starts at 21.00 local time on Saturday with Marco Melandri in pole position
having finished eighth and gaining the advantage of the reverse grid at the second
race.
Qualifying Positions
Pos  Driver         Team                Laps   Time / Gap
1   H. Frentzen    Team Lavaggi        12    2:03.967
2   J. Villeneuve  Durango             12        0.134
3   J. Alesi       HPR                 10       0.460
4   M. Melandri    Team Lavaggi        13       0.630
5   G. Morbidelli  Palm Beach           12        0.668
6   J. Herbert     JMB                 13       0.669
7  V. Liuzzi      UP Team              7       1.119
8  D. Pasini      JMB                13       1.430
9  M. Lee         HPR                 13       1.854
10   H. Al Maktoum  UP Team             14       1.919
11  T. Biagi      Palm Beach          13       2.061
12   C. Zoechling   Durango              10        2.430
13   N. Al Attiyah  Team Barwa           13        4.475
14   F. Al Thani    QMMF Team            11        8.713
15   A. Al Kuwari   QMMF Team            13       8.901

Race 1 Classification
Pos  Driver         Team                Laps   Time / Gap
1   G. Morbidelli  Palm Beach           20    41:58.910
2   V. Liuzzi     UP Team             20        2.861
3   J. Herbert     JMB                  20       10.144
4  J. Alesi      HPR                 20        12.598
5   J. Villeneuve  Durango             20       27.029
6  H. Al Maktoum  UP Team             20       43.593
7   T. Biagi       Palm Beach           20        43.806
8   M. Melandri    Team Lavaggi         20        51.354
9  C. Zoechling   Durango            20       53.757
10  N. Al Attiyah  Team Barwa          20       88.523
11  A. Al Kuwari   QMMF Team            19       1 LAP
12   F. Al Thani    QMMF Team            16        2 LAPS
Not Classified
M. Lee         HPR                   9        DNF
H. Frentzen   Team Lavaggi         6       DNF
D. Pasini      JMB                  2        DNF
Fastest Lap
V. Liuzzi      UP Team                      2:06.825 on lap 10
Drivers’ Championship Standings in Round 3, Race 5
Pos  Driver                 R1   R2   R3   R4   R5   TOTAL
1   Gianni Morbidelli       6    -    5    8   10    29
2   Johnny Herbert          5    -    6   10    6    27
3   Heinz Harald Frentzen   8    -    8    5   -    21
4   Vitantonio Liuzzi      10    -    -    1    8    19
5   Jean Alesi             -    -   10    3    5    18
6   Hasher Al Maktoum       4    -    4    2    3    13
7   Thomas Biagi            -    -    3    6    2    11
8   Jacques Villeneuve      3    -    -    -    4     7
Damien Pasini           1    -    2    4    -     7
10   Marchy Lee              2    -    -    -    -     2
11   Giovanni Lavaggi        -    -    1    -    -    1

Marco Melandri          -    -    -    -    1     1
Teams’ Championship Standings in Round 3, Race 5
Pos  Team                   R1   R2   R3   R4   R5   TOTAL
1   Palm Beach             6    -    8   14   12    40
2   JMB Racing              6    -    8   14    6    34
3   UP Team                14    -    4    3   11   32
4   HPR                     2    -   10    3    5    20
5   Team Lavaggi            -    -    8    5    1   14
6   Phoenix Racing          8    -    -    -    -    8
7   Durango                 3    -    -    -    4     7
8   Team Siram              -    -    1    -    -    1
R1 = Dubai, UAE – December 5, 2008
R2 = Dubai, UAE – December 6, 2008 (cancelled due to rain)
R3 = Sakhir, Bahrain – January 23, 2009
R4 = Sakhir, Bahrain – January 24, 2009
R5 = Doha, Qatar – February 13, 2009

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Tags: Jacques Villeneuve, Speedcar series, Week-End Motorsports