2005 Magny-Cours Feature Race

The 2005 Magny-Cours Feature Race, formally known as the 2005 Magny-Cours GP2 Series Race 1, was the eighth race of the 2005 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in Magny-Cours, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France on 2 July 2005. The race would see Heikki Kovalainen collect his third win of the campaign, after a Safety Car shuffled the field.

Qualifying had seen Alexandre Prémat sweep to his maiden pole position in GP2 on home soil, beating José María López by 0.077s. Adam Carroll had led the majority session with an impressive early effort, although his failure to improve upon his mark saw him slide behind Nico Rosberg and Kovalainen before the end of the afternoon.

The start of the race would see Kovalainen make a barnstorming start from fourth on the grid, jinking around a comparatively crawling López in order to dive past Prémat into the first corner. The Finn duly managed to drive around the outside of the #10 ART despite having two wheels in the grass through turn one, before getting the better run through Estoril to fully secure the lead.

With that Kovalainen was away, the rest of the opening tour seeing the #22 Arden ease clear of Prémat's ART. Elsewhere, Gianmaria Bruni stalled and had to be dragged into the pits before he could join the fray, while Ryan Sharp spun himself to the back all on his own.

The early stages would see much the same out front, with Kovalainen continuing to build his lead, while the order behind stabilised fairly quickly. Indeed, the only changes would come as a result of contact, with Ferdinando Monfardini spinning Alexandre Negrão out of contention, while Olivier Pla had two quick-fire pirouettes to remove himself from play.

After that the field began making their compulsory stops, with Borja García having opened the pit-phase on lap two with an incredibly early call. Indeed, by lap fifteen everyone in the top half of the field bar Kovalainen and the two ARTs had made their stops, only for Pla to have his third incident of the day and cause some headaches for the lead trio.

Indeed, a spin and a stall for the Frenchman at the final chicane left the #11 David Price Racing entry stranded on circuit, requiring the Safety Car to cover the marshals as they dragged the car clear. Arden reacted quickly and just managed to get Kovalainen in the pits as he came around to complete the lap, while ART were slower to make the call and hence left Prémat and Rosberg out.

When the race resumed the ARTs were still out on track, although they now had the rest of the field, led by Kovalainen, bunched up behind them. Regardless, the ART would instantly escape from the attentions of the Finn despite having significantly older tyres, although as the race evolved Kovalainen began to draw them back in.

With nine laps to go, and after some intense debate on the pit wall, Prémat was finally called in to the pits to leave Rosberg at the head of the field. The German youth's pace then suddenly jumped back into the 1:28.000s as he again pulled clear of Kovalainen, before finally pitting with three laps to go.

That late pit call settled the race for victory, with Kovalainen able to run unopposed from that moment on to claim victory, three second clear of López. Nicolas Lapierre was next up ahead of Carroll, Neel Jani and Hiroki Yoshimoto, while Clivio Piccione claimed the final point and pole for the Sprint Race after making a late move on Giorgio Pantano.

Background
The inaugural 2005 FIA GP2 Series arrived at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours for its fifth race weekend of the season, having completed a two day test at the Circuit Paul Ricard the week before. The series would also be in its familiar supporting role on the Formula One support bill, with no changes to the GP2 format after the slight tweaks in Germany. There would also be no changes to the entry list, although there would be at least one change to the grid after qualifying.

Viso Issues
In the wake of the trip to the Nürburgring it was revealed that Ernesto Viso would serve a ten place grid penalty at Magny-Cours, having been deemed at fault for causing a major accident in the 2005 Nürburgring Sprint Race. Indeed, the Venezuelan racer had careened into Mathias Lauda into turn one during the race, and with a precedent having been set by the officials after they denied Borja García the chance to race in the Sprint, there was little surprise that Viso was penalised for the incident. Viso would later claim that the accident was caused by a change in brakes overnight in Germany, although he would serve the penalty and apologise to the Austrian racer.

Raining in Ricard
With a month break between the Nürburgring and Magny-Cours race weekends the GP2 Series would conduct an In-Season test at the Circuit Paul Ricard, which saw the series run in heavy rain for the first time. The two-day test, staged on 15 and 16 June, would see Nico Rosberg set the fastest time on both days, with the Series testing various parts to improve reliability. The test was later deemed a success with the changes installed into all 24 GP2 Series cars ahead of the trip to Magny-Cours.

European Dreams
Heikki Kovalainen rounded out the trip to the Nürburgring with a fair margin atop the Championship, and would leave the Eifel Mountains with a nine point lead. Scott Speed had claimed two fastest laps on the trot to move up to second, while Adam Carroll had moved into third as his inconsistent campaign continued. The unfortunate Gianmaria Bruni was next up in fourth ahead of Nico Rosberg, with twenty of the 24 drivers having scored.

Arden International had the lead in the Teams' Championship leaving the Nürburgring, although their advantage was not as comfortable as their lead driver's. Indeed, the British squad had just four points in hand over second placed compatriots Super Nova Racing, while ART Grand Prix were only five further behind in third. iSport International were next up in fourth ahead of Coloni Motorsport, while Durango had continued their march up the order to claim ninth.

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:
 * * Viso served a ten place grid penalty for causing a collision in the 2005 Nürburgring Sprint Race.

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

Milestones

 * Maiden pole position for Alexandre Prémat.
 * First pole position for ART Grand Prix as an entrant.
 * Heikki Kovalainen claimed his third career victory.
 * Fifth podium for Kovalainen.
 * Arden International claimed their third victory.
 * Maiden podium for Nicolas Lapierre.
 * Maiden points finish for Hiroki Yoshimoto.

Standings
A third victory of the campaign for Heikki Kovalainen left the Finn in command of the Championship halfway through the Magny-Cours weekend, as his tally moved onto 48 points for the fledgling campaign. That translated into a sixteen point lead over Adam Carroll in second, the Brit having moved ahead of Scott Speed, while Gianmaria Bruni had likewise displaced the American racer to move into the top three. Speed had therefore slipped to fourth, level in points with Bruni, while Hiroki Yoshimoto had become the latest driver to add his name to the score sheet.

Arden International were, like their lead driver, in control of the Teams' Championship heading into the Sprint Race, with the British squad holding a fifteen point lead. Their closest challengers were Super Nova Racing, who had moved onto 43 points in second, while ART Grand Prix had slipped 22 points off the lead in third. Coloni Motorsport and iSport International completed the top five having swapped places, while BCN Competición had moved up to tenth from the foot of the table.