Gianmaria Bruni
Gianmaria Bruni (born 30 May 1981 in Rome ) is an Italian race car driver. He started in 2004 in Formula 1 for the Minardi team and went from 2005 to 2006 in the GP2 series. He is currently active in the FIA GT Championship.
Career
To start at the age of 10 years, a career as an amateur kart racers, although the minimum age for the competition was 12 years he lied to the then director of La Pista d' Oro, a kart racing track in Rome, in terms of his age.
His first experience as a racing driver, he obtained in 1997 in the Italian Formula Renault. In 1998, he won the title and rose to the European Formula Renault. The European title he won in 1999, after which he devoted himself to the British Formula 3, which in 2000 and a fifth in 2001 earned him a fourth place. After another similar European series, he caught the attention of Minardi who examined him in 2003; the major hurdle in his career, however, was to raise enough financial 2004 for his participation for Minardi support.
Although Bruni finally got a cockpit at Minardi and participated in the Formula 1 2004 season, he had to make do with a car that was decidedly less advanced than that of most other participants. He and only one other participant in this season scored no World Championship points.
2005 Bruni drove in the GP2 Series, one contained in the F1 support package and imaginary as a junior formula series championship. He won his first GP2 race in Barcelona on 7 May. Shortly before the race at Monza in September he left the Coloni GP2 team and joined the Durango team, where he won a pole position for the next event at Spa- Francorchamps in Belgium.
In 2006, Bruni launched in Formula GP2. This time, he took up with the team Trident Racing. He won the race in Imola and Hockenheim and finished the season in seventh place.
In 2007 he moved into the FIA GT Championship, where he took up with the team AF Corse in the GT2 class. The 2007 season, he finished with his team -mate Stéphane Ortelli after three wins on the third place overall. Also in the 2008 season Bruni is in the FIA GT Championship on the go. With his new team-mate Toni Vilander he could win the title in the GT2 class after five class wins. In parallel, Bruni appeared with Robert Bell also in the Le Mans Series. Bruni won with Bell three of the five championship races, but at the last race in Silverstone collided racing calendar for both series. Bruni decided in favor of the FIA GT and therefore was only runner-up behind teammate Bell. In the Le Mans Series 2009 season he made still with Bell a driver pairing and won two 1000 - km race in the GT2 class, the championship ended yet behind Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz. Simultaneously he started continues with Toni Vilander in the FIA GT and finished the drivers' championship while behind Richard Westbrook, but contributed with several class wins in the victory of the team championship by AF Corse.