Lucas di Grassi

Lucas di Grassi

Di Grassi at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
Date of birth	11 August 1984 (age 26)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Brazilian
2010 team	Virgin Racing
2010 car #	25
Races	19 (18 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last race	2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2010 position	24th (0 points)

Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver who drove for Virgin Racing in the 2010 Formula One season. He does not currently have a Formula One drive for 2011.

Career

Early career

Di Grassi's career in karting peaked in 2000, with a 5th place in the Formula A World Championship. Di Grassi began his formula racing career in Brazilian Formula Renault in 2002, finishing as runner-up to champion Sérgio Jimenez.

Formula Three (2003–06)

In 2003 Di Grassi stepped up to Formula Three, driving a Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda for Avallone Motorsport in Formula Three Sudamericana. He finished as the championship runner-up behind Danilo Dirani, with one win and eleven other podium finishes. This came despite missing the last six races after suffering a major crash at the Curitiba round.

He also travelled to Europe to make four race starts in the F3 Euroseries with Prema Powerteam, achieving a best finish of fourth place. The following year, he made a permanent move to Europe and took a drive with Hitech Racing in the British F3 Championship. His season peaked with two wins, and he was classified in eighth place overall. Another of that year's highlights was a podium finish on his début at the Macau Grand Prix with Hitech.

In 2005, Di Grassi took another step up in a full-time return to the F3 Euroseries with Manor Motorsport. Against the dominant ASM pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil he could only manage one win but ended the year third in the championship.

At the end of the season, Di Grassi returned to Macau, this time with Manor, and won the event from third on the grid, although runaway F3 Euroseries champion Hamilton missed the race.

GP2 Series (2006–09)

Di Grassi driving for Campos Grand Prix at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season

2006 brought Di Grassi to the next stage in his career: promotion to the GP2 Grand Prix support series with Team Durango. It was a modest debut season, however, with only 8 points and 17th place in the championship standings.

For 2007 he joined reigning champions ART Grand Prix. He scored points consistently throughout the season, failing to score only once in the first 13 races. Despite not winning a race in that time, it put him in contention for the championship along with iSport's Timo Glock.

He scored his first win of the year in the 14th round of the championship at Istanbul, and took the lead of the championship,[6] but Glock moved back ahead of him when he won the sprint race at the same event, and went on to win the title.

Di Grassi worked on testing the new-model GP2 car (to be used between 2008 and 2010), while testing for Renault F1. However, he resumed his GP2 career in 2008 by securing a drive at Campos Racing from round 4 onwards, replacing Ben Hanley. With three second places and one fourth place finish, he was the highest-scoring driver over the first two race meetings in which he took part. Two wins followed and he briefly looked set for a surprising championship challenge, before a final lap collision with Giorgio Pantano (who was disqualified for the incident) at Spa effectively ended his hopes. He finished an eventual third, ten points behind Pantano despite six fewer races.

He returned to the series for 2009 with Racing Engineering, and again finished third, finishing with the same number of points as he did in 2008.

Formula One

At the end of 2008, Di Grassi tested for the Honda Racing F1 Team alongside fellow Brazilian and GP2 rival Bruno Senna. Honda race driver Jenson Button tested a Honda at Circuit de Catalunya. Senna was just 0.3 seconds off and Di Grassi was 0.5 seconds off. Di Grassi was then sent a contract by Renault to join them as a test driver, becoming the third GP2 runner-up to join Renault as a test driver after fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen.

Virgin (2010)

Di Grassi took his and the Virgin team's first race finish at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Di Grassi joined Timo Glock at new team Virgin Racing for 2010. The team, originally called Manor, was rebranded when Virgin Group owner Richard Branson purchased a 20% stake. Di Grassi finished in 24th position in the championship, with a best race finish of 14th at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

In December, di Grassi won the Desafio Internacional das Estrelas, a karting event organised by Felipe Massa.

On 21 December 2010, di Grassi was left without a drive, after Virgin announced Jérôme d'Ambrosio to partner Glock for the 2011 season.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2002	Formula Renault 2.0 Brazil	G Force Motorsport	10	2	1	0	6	137	2nd
2003	Formula Three Sudamericana	Avallone Motorsport	12	1	3	0	11	164	2nd
	Formula 3 Euroseries	Prema Powerteam	4	0	0	0	0	5	21st
2004	British Formula 3	Hitech Racing	24	2	3	0	6	130	8th
	Bahrain Super Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	19th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	5th
2005	Formula 3 Euroseries	Manor Motorsport	19	1	2	1	6	68	3rd
	Macau Grand Prix		1	1	0	0	1	N/A	1st
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
2006	GP2 Series	Durango	20	0	0	0	2	8	17th
2007	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	21	1	0	0	7	77	2nd
2008	GP2 Series	Barwa International Campos Team	14	3	0	2	6	63	3rd
2009	GP2 Series	Racing Engineering	20	1	1	2	8	63	3rd
2010	Formula One	Virgin Racing	19	0	0	0	0	0	24th

(source:wikipedia)

Timo Glock

Timo Glock

Glock at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
Date of birth	18 March 1982 (age 28)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	German
2010 team	Virgin-Cosworth
2010 car #	24
Races	56 (54 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	3
Career points	51
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First race	2004 Canadian Grand Prix
Last race	2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2010 position	25th (0 pts)

Timo Glock (born 18 March 1982) is a German motor racing driver, currently driving in Formula One for the Virgin Racing team. At the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix, standing in for Giorgio Pantano who had a contract dispute with Jordan Grand Prix, he joined a select group of drivers who have scored a World Championship point in their first Formula One race.

Early career

Born in Lindenfels, West Germany, Glock began his motorsport career in 1998 at the age of 15. He won several karting championships as well as the BMW ADAC Formula Junior Cup in 2000 and the Formula BMW ADAC Championship in 2001. In his first German Formula Three Championship season in 2002, he finished third in the standings en route to rookie of the year honours. In 2003, he competed in the Formula Three Euroseries, winning three races and scoring three other podium finishes, which were enough to place him in fifth position in the Championship.

Formula 1 (2004)

2004: Jordan

Glock was signed as Jordan Grand Prix's test driver for the 2004 Formula One season and made his Formula One debut at the Canadian Grand Prix replacing Giorgio Pantano for one race. He finished 11th, but inherited 7th following the disqualification of the Williams and Toyota cars and thus scored two points on his debut. He finished the season with Jordan, taking over from Pantano for the last three races. Glock's sponsorship with Deutsche Post helped bring back the colours of DHL to Jordan.

2005: Champ Car

In 2005, Glock shifted his career to the United States, racing in the Champ Car World Series with Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports team. His best finish was second place at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve at the Molson Indy Montreal in Canada, where he was defeated by Oriol Servia. In the closing laps of the race Glock twice retained the lead over Servia by missing the track's final chicane. As the rules require drivers who gain or retain a position by driving off the racing surface to give way, Glock was asked to move over by Champ Car officials, and let Servia take the lead. Glock obliged midway through the final lap, giving him enough time to try and take the lead back, but to no avail. Glock finished 8th in the final season points standings and won the Champ Car World Series' Rookie of the Year award.

2006–2007: GP2

In 2006, Glock raced in Europe in the GP2 Series, the level immediately below Formula One. He started with the midfield BCN Competicion team, gaining average results. In mid-season, however, he moved to the front-running iSport team and after a string of improved results finished fourth in the drivers' standings. In 2006 he tested an F1 car again for BMW Sauber, which led to him being signed in December as the team's second test driver for 2007.

Glock was also re-signed for 2007 by iSport and won one feature race and four sprint races on his way to the championship. Following the serious crash of regular Formula One BMW driver Robert Kubica in Canada, it was speculated that Glock might take over the drive. However, the team instead chose its lead test driver Sebastian Vettel.Vettel's drive as a fill-in helped him get a full-time racing seat with the Toro Rosso team later in the season, starting at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Glock was then promoted to the main test and reserve driver for BMW.

Formula 1 (2008–present)

2008–2009: Toyota

Glock driving for Toyota F1 at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix,.

After winning the GP2 Series in 2007, Glock was connected to several F1 teams. He signed a contract with Toyota F1, though still under a test driver contract with BMW, which led to the dispute being brought before the Contract Recognition Board. In November, the CRB ruled that Glock was free to race for Toyota in 2008 and shortly afterwards Glock signed a three-year contract to replace Ralf Schumacher at Toyota. He scored his first points of 2008 in the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing 4th ahead of Felipe Massa's Ferrari. Glock qualified a career-best fifth at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and finished the race in second place ahead of reigning world champion Kimi Räikkönen. At the Singapore Grand Prix, Glock finished 4th, one of his best of the season.

In the final race of the 2008 season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, Glock was seventh with a few laps to go and opted to remain on the track with dry-weather tyres, while most of the other drivers opted for wet tyres because to rain falling during the final laps of the race. Starting the final lap, Glock was fourth, but he was passed by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the final corners. Hamilton's pass on Glock was enough for him to win the 2008 Drivers' Championship.Glock finished the race in sixth and the championship in tenth position, with 25 points, behind teammate Jarno Trulli.

Glock during practice for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix, which he missed after
 sustaining an injury during qualifying,.

2009 started well enough for Glock. After being in the top 10 in all 3 practice sessions in Australia, he qualified 6th on the grid. However, the rear wing of his (and team-mate Trulli's) Toyota was deemed to be too flexible and thus illegal, and his time was cleared and he started 19th. During the race, he worked his way through the pack, pulling off forceful manoeuvres, including one on Fernando Alonso and one on Sébastien Buemi to finish in 5th place. However, after the race, Lewis Hamilton was disqualified and stripped of his 4th place finish, and Glock was promoted to 4th. A week later in Malaysia, he qualified 5th, but started 3rd after penalties to both Sebastian Vettel and Rubens Barrichello. At the start of the race, Glock slipped to 8th, but an inspired tyre choice as the rain started, coupled with precise driving, saw Glock finish in 3rd when the race was ended early on lap 32.

Consecutive seventh places for Glock in the rain in China, and in the dry in Bahrain had given him a total of 12 points for the season, although these finishes came in contrasting ways. In China he qualified a disappointing 14th, not making it out of Qualifying 2, whilst in Bahrain he qualified 2nd, led the race in the first stint, but he had a poor second stint on hard tyres which forced him to battle his way back to seventh by the end of the race. Glock earned his second podium of the season when he finished 2nd behind Lewis Hamilton at the Singapore Grand Prix after qualifying in 6th. The race began well when Glock passed Alonso and was given a place by Mark Webber who was forced to let Alonso overtake. Late in the race Glock seemed set for 3rd place until Nico Rosberg crossed the white line exiting the pits, earning him a drive through penalty and allowing Glock to easily take 2nd place.

In qualifying for the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix, Glock crashed heavily at the last corner and was airlifted to hospital with a leg injury. As he was not fit to race, Jarno Trulli was the only driver representing Toyota. On 11 October 2009, Toyota confirmed that its test driver Kamui Kobayashi would make his race debut in the Brazilian Grand Prix, as Glock had suffered further complications from his accident, resulting in a cracked vertebra and he would not be guaranteed to be fit in time to race in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. Toyota pulled out of F1 at the end of 2009, leaving an uncertain future for Glock.

2010: Virgin Racing

Glock driving for Virgin Racing at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix,.

Glock's future for a time appeared uncertain, but on 17 November new team Manor Grand Prix announced that he had signed for them and would be their lead driver for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. It seemed as though Glock would partner Polish driver Robert Kubica at Renault, but following Renault's decision to announce whether it will take part in Formula 1 for 2010, Glock chose an option where he will be guaranteed a drive although the car might be less competitive. Manor became Virgin Racing in November 2009 and that Glock's former GP2 rival Lucas di Grassi would become his team mate.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2000	ADAC Formula Junior Cup		19	11	6	?	15	285.5	1st
2001	Formula BMW ADAC	BMW Formel ADAC Rookie Team	20	8	3	?	13	268	1st
2002	German Formula 3	Opel Team KMS	18	3	2	3	6	52	3rd
2003	Formula 3 Euroseries	Opel Team KMS	20	3	0	1	6	55	5th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	0	30th
2004	Porsche Supercup	Porsche AG VIP Team	1	0	0	?	0	0	NC†
	Formula One	Jordan Ford	4	0	0	0	0	2	19th
2005	Champ Car World Series	Rocketsports Racing	13	0	0	1	1	202	8th
2006	GP2 Series	BCN Competicion	20	2	0	0	5	60	4th
		iSport International
2007	GP2 Series	iSport International	20	5	4	5	10	88	1st
2008	Formula One	Panasonic Toyota Racing	18	0	0	0	1	25	10th
2009	Formula One	Panasonic Toyota Racing	14	0	0	1	2	24	10th
2010	Formula One	Virgin Racing	19	0	0	0	0	0	25th

(source:wikipedia)