Coloni to quit GP2 at end of 2012

The GP2 Series has announced that the Coloni team is to exit the competition at the end of the current season.

A terse statement from the series organisers at Silverstone confirmed that Coloni was departing "as a result of a disagreement between Coloni Motorsport and GP2 Organisation."

Since Coloni had been obliged to continue in the series in 2013 through to the end of the current contractual period, the team and the series have reached an agreement whereby Coloni forfeits all the points received or to be received by it as a team in the 2012 season in order to secure its early release at the end of the current season.

Neither GP2 nor Coloni expanded upon the reasons for the decision.

Team owner Enzo Coloni released a brief statement in which he said: "We took part in the championship since its first edition and we have many good memories from our racing seasons. I would like to thank Bruno Michel and the whole GP2 staff for their cooperation throughout the years."

Coloni is currently tenth in the team standings, with drivers Stefano Coletti and Fabio Onidi in 11th and 16th in the drivers' championship heading into this weekend's Silverstone round, the seventh of 12 race weekends in the 2012 GP2 calendar.

23-year-old Monaco racing driver Coletti achieved a podium position in the Spanish weekend feature race in Catalunya and has finished in the points five times so far this season. His team mate, 24-year-old Italian racer Onidi, has a best result of sixth place in that same Spanish race together with another points finish in Bahrain in what is his rookie season in GP2.

The drivers are likely to keep their championship positions, with the points forfeiture thought to only affect the team's standing.

Last year, Coloni was behind Luca Filippi's astounding surge to second place in the latter half of the 2011 drivers' championship. Other drivers for the team have included Kevin Ceccon, Michael Herck, Brendon Hartley, Alvaro Parente, James Jakes and Luiz Razia.