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Driver Changes

Another round of the 2009-10 GP2 Asia Series, another bout of pre-event seat shuffling. Ex-Virgin Racing tester Alvaro Parente found solace at Scuderia Coloni after losing his test drive over a sponsor issue, replacing Alberto Valerio, while ex-GP2 and A1GP man Adrian Zaugg was drafted in for Trident Racing instead of the insipid Dani Clos. Meanwhile, Jake Rosenzweig replaced Marcus Ericcson at Super Nova for the rest of the Asia season, and Yelmer Buurman replaced Max Chilton at Ocean Racing.

Qualifying

Potential GP2 Series superstar Jules Bianchi secured pole position for the feature race, by the skin of his pearly whites. The Frenchman pedalled his ART car around the Bahrain track just four thousandths of a second quicker than runaway series leader Davide Valsecchi (iSport).

The second row were equally close on times, with Javier Villa securing third place for Arden just four thousandths of a second ahead of perennial GP2 messup Luca Filippi. Overall, the top four were covered by less than 0.05 seconds. Returning ex-Virgin Parente snatched fifth place, ahead of Valsecchi's team mate Oliver Turvey.

Giacomo Ricci continued the formerly-hapless DPR team's good form with 7th place, ahead of the DAMS car of Christian Vietoris. Round two pole man Charles Pic (Arden) and Sergio Perez (Barwa Addax) completed the top ten.

Feature race grid:
1 Bianchi (ART), 2 Valsecchi (iSport), 3 Villa (Arden), 4 Filippi (Meritus), 5 Parente (Coloni), 6 Turvey (iSport), 7 Ricci (DPR), 8 Vietoris (DAMS), 9 Pic (Arden), 10 Perez (Addax), 11 Bird (ART), 12 Piscopo (DAMS), 13 Chilton (Addax), 14 Herck (DPR), 15 Rossi (Meritus), 16 Buurman (Ocean), 17 Arabadzhiev (Rapax), 18 Zaugg (Trident), 19 Zampieri (Rapax), 20 Bratt (Coloni), 21 Leimer (Ocean), 22 Kral (Super Nova), 23 Rosenweig (Super Nova), 24 Kralev (Trident).

Feature Race

Davide Valsecchi clinched a remarkable title win in the feature race by taking the victory while his nearest rivals struggled, meaning that the iSport man had secured the title with still three of the eight races in this truncated season still to go. More impressively, Valsecchi's win meant that he had finished in the top two of each of the first five races.

He sat in third for much of the feature race, behind the front pair of series veterans Luca Filippi (Meritus) and Javier Villa (Arden), before tactically picking them off in the closing stages, in much the same way that he had overwhelmed the DPR pair in Abu Dhabi in round 4.

He also benefitted from his only real title rival, team mate Oliver Turvey, being delayed with a problem at his mandatory stop, that dropped the Brit out of the points.

Filippi and Villa had led after both making brilliant starts from row two of the grid. Polesitter Jules Bianchi bogged down horribly to drop out of contention, and Valsecchi slotted into third place.

Villa sat behind Filippi in the early running, but managed to get ahead after the compulsory round of pit stops. But the pair were picked off by Valsecchi, Filippi being dispatched with a dive into turn one with six laps remaining, and Villa dealt with in a similar move two laps later after Valsecchi originally passed him but then ran wide aqnd allowed him back through.

Filippi managed to get past Villa in the dying moments of the race for second, while DPR continued their remarkable upsurge pace in the series so far with 4th place for Giacomo Ricci.

Charles Pic finished 5th in the second Arden car, with series returnee Alvaro Parente (Coloni) taking 6th. Sergio Perez (Addax) and Adrian Zaugg (Trident) rounded out the points paying places, while Turvey eventually finished 9th, one place ahead of Bianchi.

11 Daniele Zampieri (Rapax) +34.509, 12 Yelmer Buurman (Ocean) +39.513, 13 Sam Bird (ART) +40.415, 14 Christian Vietoris (DAMS) +41.750, 15 Edoardo Piscopo (DAMS) +45.779, 16 Will Bratt (Coloni) +46.803, 17 Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Rapax) +48.577, 18 Max Chilton (Addax) +1:05.086, 19 Jake Rosenzweig (Super Nova) +1:06.211, 20 Fabio Leimer (Ocean) +1:23.385, 21 Josef Kral (Super Nova) +1:53.049, 22 Plamen Kralev (Trident) +1 lap, 23 Michael Herck (DPR) +2 laps, R Alexander Rossi (Qi-Meritus) 26 laps.

Sprint Race

Valsecchi's run of top two finishes came to an end somewhat inevitably in the race immediately after he tied up the title, with the Italian starting in the middle of the pack after the grid was reversed, and losing a front wing in the traditional GP2 first lap shenanigans. He made the finish, but in a lapped 20th place, which was a somewhat ignominious way to celebrate his title success.

In his absence, the race was dominated by Frenchman Charles Pic, who jumped up from fourth on the grid to pass pole man Zaugg on lap four and secure a lead he would never lose.

Behind him, Pic's team mate at Arden, Javier Villa, held second place for most of the race, but was overwhelmed by the resurgent DPR car of Giacomo Ricci in the closing stages, who moved up to an improbable second place in the championship with another podium finish.

The opening few laps of the race were predictably hectic, with Parente and Perez crashing on the opening tour, the hapless Filippi having his token spin for the weekend to put him out of contention, and then Bianchi and Zaugg colliding shortly after Pic had forced his way into the lead.

Sam Bird eventually came through the carnage to finish fourth, after passing the fast-starting Daniele Zampieri (Rapax). Zampieri eventually tumbled out of the points altogether as Edoardo Piscopo (DAMS) and Turvey both got past him. The point that Turvey picked up for iSport meant that the team secured the Teams Championship to add to Valsecchi's drivers crown.

The championships are both over, then. But there are still two races to go, back at Bahrain supporting the F1 race in a couple of weeks time. It promises to be almost-watchable.

11 Josef Kral (Super Nova) +33.489, 12 Max Chilton (Addax) +36.437, 13 Michael Herck (DPR) +36.694, 14 Jake Rosenzweig (Super Nova) +47.789, 15 Fabio Leimer (Ocean) +49.289, 16 Plamen Kralev (Trident) +1:27.838, 17 Sergio Perez (Addax) +1:29.653, 18 Luca Filippi (Qi-Meritus) +1:36.832, 19 Adrian Zaugg (Trident) +1 lap, 20 Davide Valsecchi (iSport) +1 lap, R Jules Bianchi (ART) 19 laps, R Will Bratt (Coloni) 2 laps, R Alexander Rossi (Qi-Meritus) 2 laps, R Alvaro Parente (Coloni) 0 laps. 

Drivers Championship -
1 Valsecchi 45pts (champion), 2 Ricci 19pts, 3 Turvey 17pts, 4 Filippi, Villa 16pts, 6 Pic 12pts, 7 Rossi 10pts, 8 Vietoris 9pts, 9 Kral, Bianchi 8pts, 11 Herck 7pts, 12 James Jakes 6pts, 13 Perez 5pts, 14 Bird, Johnny Cecotto Jr, Parente 3pts, 17 Piscopo, Chilton 2pts, 19 Zaugg 1pt.

Teams Championship -
1 iSport International 62pts (champions), 2 Arden International 28pts, 3 DPR 26pts, 4 Malaysia Qi-Meritus.com 19pts, 5 Super Nova Racing 14pts, 6 DAMS, ART Grand Prix 11pts, 8 Ocean Racing Technology 9pts, 9 Barwa Addax Team 5pts, 10 Trident Racing 4pts, 11 Scuderia Coloni 3pts.