NOVEMBER 7, 2005

Liuzzi stars in Colombia

Pedro de la Rosa won the Race of Stars kart in Colombia on Sunday by playing it safe, finishing second in the first race and third in the second, beating McLaren-Mercedes teammate Juan Pablo Montoya, who won the first race but struggled in the second one after crashing and damaging his Easykart.

The first race began with a collision between Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon which started a chain reaction and left Roger Yasukawa in the lead with Montoya chasing. Montoya took the lead soon afterwards but the man to watch was Vitantonio Liuzzi, who quickly caught and challenged Montoya. The two diced before Liuzzi clipped a barrier and had to retire, which left Montoya and de la Rosa to come home 1-2 with Yasukawa third. Liuzzi had to be satisfied with fastest lap.

With the grid reversed for the second race Liuzzi walked away to a spectacular victory but because he had retired in the first race he had no chance of overall victory which was left, it seemed, to Helio Castroneves. With three laps to go, however, he lost a wheel and that left de la Rosa to win with Montoya second overall and Yasukawa third.