2005 Monza Sprint Race

The 2005 Monza Sprint Race, otherwise formally known as the 2005 Monza GP2 Series Race 2, was the nineteenth race of the 2005 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Monza, Lombardy, Italy, on 4 September 2005. The race, held in support of the LXXVI Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia, would see Neel Jani claim his second and final GP2 Series victory, ahead of title pretender Nico Rosberg.

Jani would share the front row with pole sitter Ferdinando Monfardini, while Rosberg would share the fourth row with title rival Heikki Kovalainen. However, the field would be forced to start the race behind the Safety Car, after a light failure on the starting gantry caused the standing start to be abandoned.

When the race got underway a lap later there was little Monfardini could do to deny Jani, who used the slipstream effect from the Italian's #25 Durango to breeze past well before the Rettifilo. Indeed, his only hope of reclaiming the lead came when Jani ran wide into the chicane, although the #18 Racing Engineering entry managed to get back onto the circuit ahead of the #25 Durango.

With that Jani was away, leaving Monfardini to fend off the attentions of Giorgio Pantano and Adam Carroll during the early laps. Behind them, Rosberg was on the move, rising to fifth with quick-fire moves on Nelson Piquet Jr. and Nicolas Lapierre, while Kovalainen found himself stuck behind Piquet's #3 Hitech/Piquet Racing.

Lapierre almost caused a major incident by flying off at the second chicane, narrowly avoiding both Rosberg and Carroll and he streaked into the gravel trap. That allowed Kovalainen to move up to sixth, taking a distracted Piquet on the exit of the chicane, leaving Piquet to fall into the sights of a belligerent Hiroki Yoshimoto, who duly took the Brazilian out a few laps later.

The rest of the race was about the fight for second, with Rosberg carving past Carroll and Pantano, before needing several laps to clear Monfardini to claim second. With that he was away to chase Jani, although he would run out of time to full attack the Swiss racer, as Pantano shoved his way past Monfardini late on to secure third. Kovalainen would claim fifth having drawn right onto the two Italians' tails, while Carroll claimed the final point in-spite of a partial exhaust failure in the closing stages.

Background
There would be no modifications made to either field nor the Autodromo Nazionale Monza ahead of the Sprint Race, although there had been a revision to the grid. Indeed, Ernesto Viso had, for the third time in 2005, been sent to the back of the grid for the Sprint, after he was deemed to have caused a collision with Sergio Hernández in the Feature Race. That, however, would have no impact on the front of the grid, with Ferdinando Monfardini set to start from pole after finishing eighth in the Feature.

Pretender Performances
Heikki Kovalainen ended the first part of the Monza weekend having enhanced his Championship lead, as he moved nine clear, more than a Sprint race's worth of points. Indeed, Nico Rosberg had only managed to keep pace with the Finn after the first Monza battle, but would start ahead of the Finn in the Sprint. Scott Speed was next up ahead of Alexandre Prémat, while Adam Carroll retained his spot in the top five from last on the grid.

In the Teams' Championship ART Grand Prix had remained, unsurprisingly, in the lead of the Championship, although their advantage had been reduced. Indeed, Arden International, the French squad's main rivals, had reduced the gap to 26 points after the first battle of Monza, and would likely have to outscore the French squad again in the Sprint to maintain their title ambitions. Behind Super Nova Racing, iSport International and Racing Engineering had all lost ground, while Durango had moved back ahead of BCN Competición.

Entry List
The full entry list for the is displayed below:

Grid
The grid for the Sprint Race was formed from the finishing positions from the Feature Race, with the top eight reversed as per-FIA GP2 Series rules:

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.

Milestones

 * Second and final GP2 Series victory for Neel Jani.
 * Also Jani's second and final podium finish.
 * Racing Engineering claimed their second win as an entrant.
 * Fifth and final fastest lap recorded by Nico Rosberg.

Standings
The title fight had been rather condensed as the visit to Monza came to an end, with Heikki Kovalainen's lead having been cut to four points. Indeed, the Finn ended the weekend on 99 points, leaving him just ahead of Nico Rosberg in second, the only man with a realistic chance of beating Kovalainen in the remaining four races. Scott Speed was still in the hunt mathematically, although he would have to overcome a 40 point deficit, with just 44 points left on offer.

In the Teams' Championship, however, the fight was almost over, with ART Grand Prix able to clinch the title in Spa. Indeed, their advantage of 31 points over Arden International leaving Monza meant they would only need to outscore the British squad by five across the Belgian weekend to claim the title. Furthermore, Arden were realistically the only team that could challenge them, with Super Nova Racing having slipped 59 points behind, with 70 left to fight for.