Lucas Di Grassi

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, on 11 August 1984, Lucas Tucci Di Grassi started his racing career in karting, before moving on to formula racing in 2002, where he completed the Brazilian Formula Renault season in second place, as runner-up to Sérgio Jiminez. In 2003, Di Grassi transitioned to Formula Three, finishing the Formula Three Sudamericana as runner up to Danilo Dirani. He was driving a Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda for Avallone Motorsport at the time.

In 2004 Di Grassi moved to Europe, competing in the British F3 Championship as a driver for Hitech Racing. He earned a podium finish at the Macau Grand Prix – his debut event with Hitech – and finished the season in eighth place. Driving for Manor Motorsport in 2005, Di Grassi finished third in the F3 Euroseries championship.

Moving up to GP2 with Team Durango in 2006, Di Grassi finished the season with eight points at seventeenth in the standings. Driving for ART Grand Prix in 2007, Di Grassi scored points at every race (with the exception of one), pitting him against Timo Glock for the championship. The competition between the two drivers was close virtually up to the end of the season, with Glock winning the title. Di Grassi went on to drive for Campos Racing from round four of the 2008 F2 season, where he replaced Ben Hanley. A collision with Giorgio Pantana at Spa that year resulted in Di Grassi finishing third in the season.

Having served as the third driver for Renault F1 Team in 2009, and achieving third overall in the GP2 series that year, Lucas Di Grassi signed to race for the newly created Virgin Racing team in the 2010 F1 Grand Prix Championships, with his one-time rival Timo Glock as his team-mate.

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