2005 Spa Feature Race

The 2005 Spa Feature Race, otherwise known as the 2005 Spa GP2 Series Race 1, was the twentieth race of the 2005 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps near Stavelot, Liège, Belgium, on 10 September 2005. The race, held in support of the LXII Foster's Grand Prix de Belgique, would see Nelson Piquet Jr. sweep to his maiden victory, despite a controversial late collision with Alexandre Prémat.

Qualifying would see a returning Gianmaria Bruni stun the field, sweeping to pole position for new team Durango as rain soaked the circuit. He would share the front row with Prémat, while Championship leader Heikki Kovalainen claimed fourth as main rival Nico Rosberg could only claim eleventh on the grid.

Dark skies would hang over Spa ahead of the Feature Race, although the field would start on slick Bridgestone tyres, and on a largely circuit. Indeed, that would play into the hands of Prémat when the lights went out, with the Frenchman able to get alongside Bruni on the run to La Source, before powering ahead on the sprint to Eau Rouge.

Behind, however, there would be minor chaos, with the rest of the field having to dodge around a stalled Nicolas Lapierre. Miraculously neither the Frenchman nor the similarly stationary Neel Jani, would be collected, although their two stranded GP2/05s would require the cover of a Safety Car to be safely removed from the circuit.

After a one lap intervention the race resumed, with Prémat sweeping into the lead, while Bruni kept Kovalainen at bay, with the Finn actually hitting the back of the #25 Durango. Prémat duly began to break away as the early laps unfolded, with Bruni instead having to fend off increasing pressure from Kovalainen, who was himself under threat from an aggressive Piquet.

Their fight would then be interrupted by the second SC of the afternoon, with Hiroki Yoshimoto sliding into the barriers all on his own. Prémat duly dived in with Piquet, Scott Speed, Rosberg, Ernesto Viso and Alexandre Negrão all diving in for wets, while Bruni, Kovalainen, Adam Carroll and José María López stayed out, gambling on rain gracing the circuit.

Bruni would try and break clear at the restart, although his efforts were wasted when his sent himself into a pirouette and into the barriers. That triggered SC number three moments after Carroll had elbowed his way past Kovalainen, with the Brit duly leading the field away from the Finn as they now fully committed to waiting for the rain, which was beginning to fall in several places.

However, the race had barely got going again before a fourth SC was thrown, this time to cover the removal of Giorgio Mondini who had suffered a heavy accident through Eau Rouge. Once again, however, Carroll and co. would again opt to stay out with the field too close to them to stop, with Carroll again leading the field away at the restart.

This time it was Carroll who lost out, falling to Kovalainen after a slide at Eau Rouge, while behind Piquet punted Prémat out of the race. With an investigation looming the Brazilian was left in fourth place, with Kovalainen, Carroll and López ahead of him all sweeping into the pits for their mandated stops in the closing stages, dumping them down the field.

With that the race was run, with Piquet duly cruising across the line to claim victory, which was later confirmed after a post-race investigation only handed him a ten place grid penalty for the Sprint Race after his Prémat punt. Viso and Rosberg then completed the podium ahead of Speed, with Juan Cruz Álvarez, Borja García, Negrão and Carroll completing the scorers.

Background
After the trip to the 'Temple of Speed', the FIA GP2 Series moved onto the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, marking its first trip to the legendary circuit near Stavelot, Belgium. Again supporting Formula One and the LXII Foster's Grand Prix de Belgique, there would be one change to the GP2 Series field, as Gianmaria Bruni returned to the entry list.

Bruni Bounce back
Bruni was formally announced as a driver at Durango in the build-up to the race, after quitting Coloni Motorsport on the eve of the previous round in Monza. The Italian racer, who replaced Ferdinando Monfardini at Durango, had expected to join the Italian squad ahead of the trip to Monza, although his late decision to quit Coloni delayed the move. The move also fuelled increasing rumours that Bruni's backers Trident Racing would join GP2 in 2006, as Monfardini left the Durango squad after losing his seat.

Finale Formulations
Ahead of the penultimate round of the inaugural GP2 season there would be news about the schedule for the finale, with GP2 set to race as the headline act for the first time at the Bahrain International Circuit at the end of September. Unusually, the finale would be staged on Thursday and Friday in Bahrain, the traditional weekend in the Bahraini week, while also run on a condensed two-day schedule. Furthermore, there would be two qualifying sessions on Thursday morning, although they were both to be used to set the grid for the Feature Race, while the Sprint Race grid would be set via finishing positions in the Feature as usual.

The GP2 Series would be supported by local series across the Bahraini meeting, with the local Mini Cooper and Thunder Arabia championships set to support the event.

Monza Mastery
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.

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

Qualifying
Qualifying for the inaugural GP2 Series race would be staged via a thirty minute session on Friday afternoon, ahead of the Feature Race on Saturday. All 24 drivers would venture onto the circuit during the session, and were allowed to complete as many laps as they could to set their qualifying time. There was also a free choice of tyres, although drivers could not exceed their allocation of Bridgestone tyres.

Results
The final qualifying result for the are outlined below:

Results
The final classification of the is displayed below:
 * Bold indicates a driver started from pole.
 * Italics indicate that a driver set fastest lap.
 * * Piquet was awarded a ten place grid penalty for the 2005 Spa Sprint Race for causing an avoidable collision with Prémat.
 * † Prémat recorded the fastest lap of the race, but was ineligible to claim the bonus points as he failed to complete 90% of the race distance.

Milestones

 * First pole position for Gianmaria Bruni.
 * Durango claimed their maiden and only pole position.
 * Maiden victory for Nelson Piquet Jr.
 * Also Piquet's fifth podium finish.
 * Piquet GP claimed their maiden GP2 Series victory as an entrant.
 * Fifth podium for Piquet GP as an entrant.
 * Maiden podium for Ernesto Viso.
 * Tenth podium finish for Nico Rosberg.
 * Juan Cruz Álvarez scored his maiden points finish.

Standings
For the first time in 2005 someone other than Heikki Kovalainen would head the Championship, as Nico Rosberg rose to the fore. Indeed, the German youth had established a two point lead after a six point swing in the Spa Feature, with those two the only pretenders for the title. Indeed, Scott Speed had dropped 37 points behind, with a maximum of 36 points left to fight for over the final three races.

In the Teams' Championship ART Grand Prix had inched closer to the title, having established a 37 point lead with three races to go. Indeed, they could claim the crown in the Spa Sprint, if Arden International failed to outscore them by two points or more in the Sprint. Behind, iSport International would be left to entertain hopes of overhauling Arden for second, while there were no changes elsewhere to the overall order.