Romain Grosjean left the opening weekend of the 2009 GP2 Series with the championship lead, after a dominant win in the feature race and a strong drive in the sprint. Meanwhile, many of the other pre-season favourites struggled.
Feature Race
Grosjean took a lights-to-flag win in the first race of the 2009 campaign, in a supreme performance for the Barwa Addax Team. His lead was never threatened, even when a late safety car period closed the field back up.
Grosjean led away from pole position, while fellow front row starter and pre-season favourite Lucas di Grassi was passed by Grosjean's Barwa team mate Vitaly Petrov. Another bookies favourite, Nico Hulkenburg, struggled in his first race for ART, bogging down at the start and dropping from 4th place into the midfield.
The DAMS car of Jerome D'Ambrosio worked its way up to third place early on, and it remained there for the rest of the race, while the much-maligned Luca Filippi drove from ninth on the grid to finish fourth, Pastor Maldonado taking fifth behind him.
Towards the end, action appeared in the form of a big crash. Di Grassi had been passed by Edoardo Mortara, and found himself defending sixth place from Alvaro Parente in the Ocean Racing car, only for Parente to collide with Di Grassi's Racing Engineering car.
Despite the ensuing safety car, which saw Grosjean's lead evaporate, the Frenchman controlled the restart and led home a comfortable Barwa 1-2.
| Feature Race Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Romain Grosjean | Barwa Addax | 1:02:22.709 | 10 |
| 2 | Vitaly Petrov | Barwa Addax | +2.459 | 8 |
| 3 | Jerome D'Ambrosio | DAMS | +6.349 | 6 |
| 4 | Luca Filippi | Super Nova | +8.346 | 5 |
| 5 | Pastor Maldonado | ART | +8.741 | 4 |
| 6 | Edoardo Mortara | Arden | +12.529 | 3 |
| 7 | Giedo van der Garde | iSport | +12.748 | 2 |
| 8 | Kamui Kobayashi | DAMS | +14.063 | 1 |
| 9 | Nico Hulkenburg | ART | +14.260 | |
| 10 | Javier Villa | Super Nova | +15.200 |
11 Diego Nunes (iSport) +16.669, 12 Nelson Panciatici (Durango) +17.756, 13 Michael Herck (DPR) +18.445, 14 Sergio Perez (Arden) +18.595, 15 Alberto Valerio (Piquet) +31.629, 16 Luis Razia (Fisichella) +1 lap, 17 Davide Rigon (Trident) +1 lap, R Lucas di Grassi (Racing Eng) 32 laps, R Alvaro Parente (Ocean) 32 laps, R Dani Clos (Racing Eng) 31 laps, R Karun Chandhok (Ocean) 27 laps, R Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet) 25 laps, R Davide Valsecchi (Durango) 16 laps, R Ricardo Teixeira (Trident) 11 laps, R Andi Zuber (Fisichella) 5 laps, R Giacomo Ricci (DPR) 1 lap.
Sprint Race
The shorter, reverse-grid sprint race was won by GP2 rookie Edoardo Mortara, who took the lead from third on the grid after a sensational start, and then kept an immaculate lead under massive pressure from Grosjean, who nevertheless claimed second place and a mighty 8 point championship lead to boot.
Grosjean began 8th on the grid, but within the first couple of tours he scythed up to third place, before passing Jerome d'Ambrosio after a brief tussle. Despite one genuine effort to grab the lead though, Mortara extended a 1.5 second lead and impressively kept Grosjean gapped all the way to the flag.
D'Ambrosio secured his second podium of the weekend in a lonely run to third place, ending some 6.5 seconds behind the leader, while the iSport man Giedo van der Gardesecured fourth place from GP2 Asia champion Kobayasi.
The race saw a Trulli-train esque performance from Luca Filippi, who managed to get himself up to sixth place, and then spent the rest of the race desperately holding off a gaggle of faster cars. In the end, only Pastor Maldonado managed it, grabbing the final point available in the sprint to boot. Filippi hung on to a pointless seventh after Hulkenburg was spun down the field by Diego Nunes
Lucas di Grassi also had another pointless outing, putting in a recovery drive from the back of the grid but only finishing 10th. Both he and Hulkenburg ended the opening weekend of the series without a point between them.
| Sprint Race Result | ||||
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time | Pts |
| 1 | Edoardo Mortara | Arden | 39:55.235 | 6 |
| 2 | Romain Grosjean | Barwa Addax | +1.251 | 5 |
| 3 | Jerome D'Ambrosio | DAMS | +6.518 | 4 |
| 4 | Giedo van der Garde | iSport | +14.638 | 3 |
| 5 | Kamui Kobayashi | DAMS | +17.170 | 2 |
| 6 | Pastor Maldonado | ART | +20.099 | 1 |
| 7 | Luca Filippi | Super Nova | +28.971 | |
| 8 | Diego Nunes | iSport | +29.258 | |
| 9 | Vitaly Petrov | Barwa Addax | +29.433 | |
| 10 | Lucas di Grassi | Racing Eng | +31.038 |
11 Alvaro Parente (Ocean) +32.026, 12 Luiz Razia (Fisichella) +33.167, 13 Alberto Valerio (Piquet) +33.789, 14 Nico Hulkenberg (ART) +34.278, 15 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +38.913, 16 Davide Valsecchi (Durango) +40.811, 17 Sergio Perez (Arden) +42.258. 18 Nelson Panciatici (Durango) +59.664, 19 Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) +59.747, 20 Ricardo Teixeira (Trident) +1:00.052, 21 Davide Rigon (Trident) +1 lap, R Karun Chandhok (Ocean) 21 laps, R Javier Villa (Super Nova) 17 laps, R Michael Herck (DPR) 13 laps, R Andi Zuber (Fisichella) 8 laps, R Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet) 0 laps.
Drivers Championship -
1 Grosjean 18pts, 2 Mortara, d'Ambrosio 10pts, 4 Petrov 8pts, 5 van der Garde, Filippi, Maldonado 5pts, 8 Kobayashi 3pts.
Teams Championship -
1 Barwa Addax Team 26pts, 2 DAMS 13pts, 3 Arden International 10pts, 4 iSport International, Super Nova, ART Grand Prix 5pts.
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