Patronise F1

Points leader Romain Grosjean had an up and down weekend in Monaco, getting his head down to drive off into the distance in the feature race on Friday, but then ending up high and dry on top of the barriers in a spectacular accident in the sprint.

Grosjean dominated the longer feature race around the streets of Monte Carlo, with a performance every bit as impressive as his drive to win the opening round of the season in Barcelona. Once again he started from pole position and eased into a clear lead from the chasing pack, which was again headed by his Barwa Addax team mate, Vitaly Petrov, from second on the grid. Further back though, the race result descended into farce, as eight drivers were given time penalties after cutting the Ste Devote corner.

In the end, the victory margin was immense, for a spec formula like GP2. Grosjean finished nearly seven seconds ahead of Petrov, with third placed Lucas di Grassi, getting his first points of the season, some 16 seconds adrift by the end.

Di Grassi seemed to have the battle for the final podium spot that was between himself and fellow pre-season favourite Nico Hulkenburg, with The Hulk losing out in the pit stops and having to settle for an initial fourth place, ahead of Andreas Zuber, Jerome D'Ambrosio and Karun Chandhok. The final point, seemed to have gone to Spain's Javier Villa.

After the race though, the order was shaken up, as eight drivers (Di Grassi, Hulkenberg, Villa, Roldan Rodriguez, Mortara, Luca Filippi, Kamui Kobayashi and Dani Clos) were all given 25 second time penalties for cutting the first corner. Di Grassi lost his third place to Zuber, with Hulkenburg dropping to fifth, while Pastor Maldonado was promoted to 8th place and the pole position for the sprint.

All in all, the GP2 crowd struggled to serve up any entertainment around the tight confines of the Monaco track, with the odd car driving into the barriers the only real entertainment in lieu of any overtaking. Barcelona sprint race winner Edoardo Mortara had the most spectacular demise, spinning at the exit of the Grand Hotel hairpin, but the drivers following him avoided a pile-up, and no incident during the race required a safety car.

11 Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet) +1:36.546*, 12 Sergio Perez (Arden) +1 lap, 13 Luiz Razia (Fisichella) +1 lap, 14 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +1 lap, 15 Davide Valsecchi (Durango) DNF, 16 Michael Herck (DPR) +2 laps, R Giedo van der Garde (iSport) 38 laps, R Alvaro Parente (Ocean) 36 laps, R Edoardo Mortara (Arden) 35 laps*, R Luca Filippi (Super Nova) 34 laps*, R Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) 18 laps*, R Dani Clos (Racing Eng) 16 laps*, R Diego Nunes (iSport) 13 laps, R Alberto Valerio (Piquet) 5 laps, R Nelson Panciatici (Durango) 4 laps.

* - indicated 25 second time penalty for cutting corner.

Sprint Race

If Grosjean had a perfect feature race, his sprint race was the polar opposite, as he ended up parked in an undignified manner on top of the barriers at Tabac following a spectacular, race-stopping accident.

It was the only real action of another processional race at the Monte Carlo track, as Pastor Maldonado picked up his first win of the season, thanks to long-time leader Karun Chandhok, who got ahead of Maldonado at the start, retiring with mechanical problems.

Jerome D'Ambrosio took second in his DAMS-run car, while the ART car of Nico Hulkenberg finished in the final podium spot. Lucas Di Grassi came home in fourth and Andi Zuber was fifth, with Vitaly Petrov grabbing the final point in sixth as the finishers matched their starting positions minus the unlucky Chandhok.

But the race, somewhat mercifully, ended two laps before it's intended distance after Grosjean's crash, caused by the points leader inexplicably trying to pass Zuber's car into Tabac, the Barwa Addax man managind to leap over Zuber's rear wheel, get airborne and and slide across the top of the barriers, coming to rest on top of the Armco and narrowly avoiding a cameraman in the process.

Grosjean was unhurt, and the damage to his ego will be tempered by the fact that he keep his commanding points lead with four rounds of the series completed, that he takes to the next two rounds of the series in Turkey in two weeks time.

If you're the sort of person that likes to gawp at scary crashes, Grosjean's demise can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/quzq8o

11 Giedo Van Der Garde (iSport) +58.582, 12 Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) +59.696, 13 Edoardo Mortara (Arden) +1:03.710, 14 Diego Nunes (iSport) +1:04.840, 15 Nelson Panciatici (Durango) +1:07.681, 16 Michael Herck (DPR) +1 lap, 17 Romain Grosjean (Barwa Addax) +2 laps, 18 Davide Valsecchi (Durango) +2 laps, R Dani Clos (Racing Eng) 23 laps, R Alberto Valerio (Piquet) 23 laps, R Luca Filippi (Super Nova) 23 laps. R Karun Chandhok (Ocean) 21 laps, R Giacomo Ricci (DPR) 18 laps, R Alvaro Parente (Ocean) 15 laps, R Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet) 2 laps.

Drivers Championship -
1 Grosjean 31pts, 2 Petrov, D'Ambrosio 18pts, 4 Maldonado 12pts, 5 Mortara 10pts, 6 Hulkenberg, Zuber, Di Grassi 8pts, 9 Van der Garde, Filippi 5pts, 11 Kobayashi 3pts, 12 Chandhok 2pts.

Teams Championship -
1 Barwa Addax 49pts, 2 DAMS 21pts, 3 ART Grand Prix 20pts, 4 Arden 10pts, 5 Fisichella, Racing Engineering 8pts, 7 iSport, Super Nova 5pts, 9 Ocean Racing 2pts.