Lucas Di Grassi

Infobox racing driver
name = Lucas Di Grassi


pixels =
caption =
nationality = flagicon|Brazil Brazilian
date of birth = Birth date and age|1984|08|11
place of birth = São Paulo (Brazil)
current series = GP2 Series
first year = 2006
current team = Campos Grand Prix
car number = 6
former teams = Durango, ART Grand Prix
starts = 52
wins = 4
poles = 0
fastest laps = 3
best finish = 2nd
year = 2007
prev series = F3 Euroseries
British F3 Championship
Formula Three Sudamericana
Formula Renault
prev series years = 2003, 2005
2004
2003
2001-2002
titles =
title years =
awards =
award years =

Lucas Tucci Di Grassi (b. 11 August, 1984) is a racing driver from São Paulo, Brazil, whose career has revolved around karting and single seater formula racing. Having finished as runner-up to Timo Glock in the 2007 GP2 Series season, he is currently the Renault Formula One team's test driver. He is also one of five racers on the Renault Driver Development (RDD) programme. cite web | title = Meet the rookies: Lucas di Grassi | publisher = F1Fanatic.co.uk | date = 2007 | url = http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2007/08/13/meet-the-rookies-lucas-di-grassi/ | accessdate =2007-08-13]

Early formula career

Di Grassi's career in karting peaked in 2000, with a 5th place in the Formula A World Championship.

Formula Three

He began his formula racing career in Brazilian Formula Renault in 2002, finished as championship runner-up, and then graduated to Formula Three the following year.

In 2003, he drove a Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda for Avallone Motorsport in Formula Three Sudamericana. He finished as the championship runner-up, 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. [ cite web | title = Forix | url = http://forix.autosport.com/driver.php?l=0&d=205&d=40&r=1984081100&c=51&rcp=402003&rst=1000] 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. [ cite web | title = Forix | url = http://forix.autosport.com/driver.php?l=0&d=205&d=46&r=1984081100&c=51&rcp=462004&rst=1000]

Another of that year's highlights was a podium finish on his début (with Hitech Racing) at the Macau Grand Prix.

In 2005, Di Grassi took another step up in a full-time return to the 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, [ cite web | title = Forix | url = http://forix.autosport.com/driver.php?l=0&d=205&d=402&r=1984081100&c=51&rcp=4022005&rst=1000] although runaway F3 Euroseries champions Hamilton missed the race.

GP2

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. [ cite web | title = Forix | url = http://forix.autosport.com/cp.php?l=0&d=205&r=2052006&c=30]

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, cite web | title = GP2 Turkey Feature: di Grassi takes title lead | publisher = MaximumMotorsport.co.uk | date = 2007 | url = http://www.maximummotorsport.co.uk/2007/08/25/gp2-turkey-feature-di-grassi-takes-title-lead/ | accessdate =2007-08-28] but Glock moved back ahead of him when he won the sprint race at the same event. cite web | title = GP2 Turkey Sprint: Glock back on top | publisher = MaximumMotorsport.co.uk | date = 2007 | url = http://www.maximummotorsport.co.uk/2007/08/26/gp2-turkey-sprint-glock-back-on-top/ | accessdate =2007-08-28]

He worked on testing the new-model GP2 car (to be used between 2008 and 2010), while testing for Renault F1. However, resumed his GP2 career by securing a drive at Campos Racing from round 4 onwards.cite web | title = Di Girassi in GP2 Return with Campos | publisher = autosport.com | date = 2008 | url =http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/68176/ | accessdate =2008-06-09] 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) effectively ended his hopes. He finished an eventual third, thirteen points behind Pantano despite six fewer races.

Racing record

Complete GP2 Series results

() (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in "italics" indicate fastest lap)

References

External links

* [http://www.lucasdigrassi.com.br/ Lucas Di Grassi official website]

* [http://www.driverdb.com/racingdriver331.html Lucas Di Grassi career statistics] at Driver Database