2005 Magny-Cours Sprint Race

The 2005 Magny-Cours Sprint Race, otherwise known as the 2005 Magny-Cours GP2 Series Race 2, was the ninth race of the 2005 FIA GP2 Series, staged at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in Magny-Cours, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France, on 3 July 2005. The race, held in support of the XCI Mobil 1 Grand Prix de France, would see Nico Rosberg claim his maiden GP2 victory in dominant fashion.

Rosberg would start the race from second on the grid behind Clivio Piccione, after they finished seventh and eighth respectively in the Feature Race. The German youth duly sprinted ahead of Piccione when the race began on Sunday morning, with the Monegasque racer instead trying and failing to keep Hiroki Yoshimoto, Neel Jani and Adam Carroll through the first few corners.

With that Rosberg was away, pulling out a two second lead over the rest of the opening tour, while Piccione eventually stabilised his fall in fifth. Indeed, he would find himself having to fend off the attentions of José María López and Heikki Kovalainen over the rest of the tour, before Kovalainen began a steady climb towards the podium.

Indeed, after getting his tyres fully up to temperature the Championship leader would begin his ominous ascent up the field, first by taking advantage of a mistake from López to claim sixth. Two laps later and the Finn was gifted fifth when Piccione slid wide, the #24 Durango showing signs of tyre struggles, before Kovalainen sprinted away to catch Carroll.

Unsurprisingly Carroll would put up a ferocious defence of fourth, making no mistakes upon which Kovalainen could capitalise for several laps, until he slid wide at Adelaide and let the Finn pass. However, the Ulsterman would almost find a way back past Kovalainen when the Finn made an identical error, although Kovalainen was able to scramble back onto the circuit ahead of the Brit.

With that Kovalainen was off to hunt down Jani, with the #18 Racing Engineering falling into the sights of the #22 Arden International inside of three laps. It would, however, take a dummy from the Finn to get ahead of the Swiss racer into the chicane, leaving him clear to chase after Yoshimoto for second, albeit with time running out.

Indeed, the Finn would ultimately run out of time to catch the #6 BCN Competición, with Rosberg sweeping across the line almost half a minute clear to claim victory for the first time in GP2. Yoshimoto and Kovalainen finished half a second apart to complete the podium, with Jani ten seconds further back in fourth. Nicolas Lapierre, meanwhile, would complete a late charge into the points to claim fifth, with Carroll claiming the final point in sixth.

Background
There were no changes made to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours overnight after the Feature Race, with the GP2 field likewise unchanged as the reconvened on Sunday morning. As a result, Clivio Piccione would start from pole position as expected, with the Sprint Race set to run for the extended 120 km or 45 minutes format as had been trialled at the Nürburgring.

French Features
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.

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.
 * * Viso was handed a ten place grid penalty for the 2005 Silverstone Feature Race for causing a collision with Pla.
 * † Monfardini was still classified despite retiring as he had completed 90% of the race distance.
 * ‡ Piquet and Piccione were both disqualified from the race for changing all four tyres twice during the Sprint race.
 * § Prémat was awarded a ten place grid penalty for the 2005 Silverstone Feature Race for causing multiple collisions.

Milestones

 * Maiden victory for Nico Rosberg.
 * First win for ART Grand Prix as an entrant in the GP2 Series.
 * Maiden podium finish for Hiroki Yoshimoto.

Standings
Heikki Kovalainen would end the French GP2 Series meeting with a comfortable Championship lead, the Finn having moved onto 52 points after his charge to the podium. That left him eighteen clear of Adam Carroll in second, while Gianmaria Bruni was 21 points, off in third. Behind, Nico Rosberg had moved up to fourth after his maiden victory, level on points with Scott Speed, while Fairuz Fauzy, Juan Cruz Álvarez and Borja García had been left as the only pointless drivers in the field.

Arden International rounded out the trip to Magny-Cours with a decisive lead in the Championship as the season approached half-distance, and would arrive at their home race with a twenty point lead. Compatriots Super Nova Racing would occupy second leaving France, although they were only a point ahead of French racers ART Grand Prix after Rosberg's Sprint triumph. Coloni Motorsport and iSport International then completed the top five, while Campos Racing had settled at the bottom of the table, a point behind David Price Racing.