13/05/2006
NEWS STORY
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Alex Premat has taken victory from under his ART Grand Prix team-mate's nose on the final lap of today's race in Barcelona
Alex Premat has taken victory on the final lap of race one in Barcelona after tapping teammate and long time leader Lewis Hamilton into a spin, with the Briton recovering to claim second place ahead of a distant Michael Ammermüller.
The controversial move was the climax of a ten lap battle between the pair, with Hamilton's tyres going off but leaving the Briton with just enough to hold Premat in check until the last lap, when the Frenchman went for a gap that wasn't quite car sized.
Hamilton had it all to do during the race after making a poor start, dropping from fourth to eighth by the first turn. At the front Nelson Piquet Jr, Premat and Adam Carroll held their position to lead the race from Olivier Pla, who stormed up to fourth from ninth on the grid.
Hamilton was into the pits as soon as they opened, along with Nicolas Lapierre, in an attempt to leap up the grid through the stops; he came out in twentieth position but immediately set the fastest lap as a sign of intent.
Up at the front Piquet was doing what he had to do, building a gap to Premat each time by the pits and looking in control of the race while a number of drivers took their chance at an early stop.
Ammermüller was in from sixth on lap 8, with fifth placed Gimmi Bruni following him a lap later, and it looked as though the leading pack were weighing up their options. Piquet's pace was strong compared to Hamilton's and so he stayed out, but Premat was losing time and came in on lap 10, re-emerging behind his rapid teammate.
Piquet held station in front of Carroll and Pla until lap 13, when all three came in at once, handing the lead to Andreas Zuber. Piquet came out in fifth place, just ahead of Hamilton and looked to have done enough to claim a win, with Carroll coming out between the ART cars.
But the stewards had other ideas: Piquet was handed a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Meanwhile it emerged that Carroll had not actually stopped: the Ulsterman did not know where to stop after he had missed his lollipop man, and would need another visit to the pits.
Piquet was out in tenth place, his race seemingly in tatters while Zuber lost a strong points finish at the final corner when his left rear deflated and threw him off and into retirement, while Carroll's actual stop dropped him down to 19th on the road.
Back at the front of the pack Ferdinando Monfardini was leading, the only man to have not stopped so far, and if his pursuers were ignoring him the stopwatch wasn't: he was setting times faster than Hamilton in second, and was actually building a gap.
Behind them Piquet was on a mission to reclaim something, anything, from the race, and was shortly through Jose Maria Lopez and up to seventh and looking up the road to Pla.
Pla wasn't the only man to do well out of the stops: behind Monfardini and the ART pair was Ammermüller and Clivio Piccione, the latter in the points for the first time this year and hounding the Arden man for what he knew would be a podium finish.
Lopez was dropping back into the hands of Bruni, who was more than anxious to get into the points again. On lap 22 the pair came together at turn one: Bruni ran to the inside, Lopez didn't leave much space, and the Italian rode the kerb before spinning into the Super Nova car, putting both cars out on the spot.
The move put Tristan Gommendy into the points, the reward for a strong drive ahead of Xandi Negrao, while behind them Lapierre's tyres were clearly going off as he dropped towards a very eager Giorgio Pantano.
The Italian smelt blood and attacked at La Caixa, pulling to the inside and pushing Lapierre wide out of the corner: Pantano was through into tenth like a shot, followed by Ernesto Viso.
The order at the front held station until lap thirty when Monfardini finally made his stop, promoting the ART pair into first and second ahead of Ammermüller and Piccione. The Monegasque driver was all over the rear of his rival, but the German was defending as though his life depended on it.
Lapierre's day was over three laps later: after dropping like a stone down the order he pulled into the pits and retirement. His countryman Pla looked likely to join him: unable to hold Piquet at bay he was also falling down the order, being overtaken by Gommendy, Monfardini and Negrao.
With one lap to go the race seemed to be over: Premat's tyres were fresher than Hamilton's, but it seemed impossible that he would make a move on his teammate at this late stage.
But the impossible happened: Premat pushed inside Hamilton at La Caixa, with the Briton leaving a little room but no more. The Frenchman needed extra, and a small collision between the pair saw Hamilton spin helplessly as Premat ran through to take an unexpected victory just a few corners later.
Hamilton recovered to claim second place ahead of Ammermüller, who survived a spirited Piccione attack when the latter speared off the road and out of a certain points finish.
Piquet was the next man through, claiming fourth after losing a seemingly easy win in the pits, while Gommendy was fifth for his first points finish. Monfardini claimed sixth after an extremely strong race, with Negrao leading Pla across the line.
Pla will be on tomorrow's pole and hoping for a repeat of his race-winning antics in a similar position twice last year, while Adrian Valles took the point for fastest lap on his last trip around the circuit.
With Hamilton losing the win and Piquet claiming fourth the pair share the lead in the championship standings on 34, with Lapierre following on 25 points, ahead of Premat and Ammermüller on 23.
Note: In post-race scrutineering, Pla's car was found to be underweight. Consequently the Frenchman was disqualified.