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Mar 09th
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GP2 Series - Britain

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The two GP2 races at Silverstone produced a pair of slightly surprising winners, but it was Barwa Addax driver Romain Grosjean who re-established his place at the top of the championship with a pair of solid points finishes.

Feature Race

Romain Grosjean started from pole at Silverstone, after dominating practice and qualifying at the Northamptonshire track, and the Barwa Addax driver led the field away at the start of the race. But unlike his early-season dominant wins, he found himself relentlessly pursued by the surprising form of Alberto Valerio's Piquet GP car.

The Brazilian had managed second on the grid for the main race, and he battled Grosjean for the lead throughout the opening laps, before making the decisive move at Appey on the eighth tour. He then pulled away from Grosjean, who found himself struggling for pace throughout the race, and was soon passed by Lucas di Grassi's Racing Engineering machine.

As the pit stops approached, ART Grand Prix man Nico Hulkenburg made an inspired early pit stop, and his pace on fresh rubber saw him shake out in second place behind Valerio. Alas, his efforts also succeeded in destroying his rubber, and in the final laps he was caught and passed by di Grassi, who took second spot behind the delighted winner Valerio.

Hulkenburg held on to third place from Arden driver Sergio Perez, while pole man Grosjean slipped back to fifth place by the end of the race. That was still enough to give the Frenchman the championship lead, after erstwile leader and Grosjean's Barwa team mate Vitaly Petrov limped to 15th following a first lap excursion.

Indian driver Karun Chandhok took sixth place, with Pastor Maldonado ending seventh, and Andi Zuber taking 8th and pole for the Sunday sprint race.

  Race Result
   
Pos Driver Team Time Pts
1 Alberto Valerio
Piquet 55:32.255 10
2 Lucas di Grassi
Racing Eng
+1.238 8
3 Nico Hulkenburg
ART Grand Prix
+5.289 6
4 Sergio Perez
Arden +5.550 5
5 Romain Grosjean
Barwa Addax
+14.409 4
6 Karun Chandhok
Ocean +16.392 3
7 Pastor Maldonado ART Grand Prix
+22.184 2
8 Andi Zuber
Fisichella +26.889 1
9 Michael Herck
DPR +36.321 
10 Davide Valsecchi
Durango +39.715 

11 Diego Nunes (iSport) +40.509, 12 Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet) +41.479, 13 Dani Clos (Racing Eng) +45.601, 14 Luca Filippi (Super Nova) +46.247, 15 Vitaly Petrov (Addax) +46.415, 16 Davide Rigon (Trident) +57.096, 17 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +1:10.760, 18 Nelson Panciatici (Durango) +1:16.251, 19 Jerome D'Ambrosio (DAMS) +1:19.149, 20 Luiz Razia (Fisichella) +1 lap, R Javier Villa (Super Nova) 30 laps, R Giedo van der Garde (iSport) 29 laps, R Ricardo Teixeira (Trident) 8 laps, R Alvaro Parente (Ocean) 1 lap, R Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) 0 laps, R Edoardo Mortara (Arden) 0 laps.

Sprint Race

The Sunday sprint was won by Pastor Maldonado, who beat Zuber into the first corner at the start and led the entire distance of the race, surviving a late safety car period to elevate himself to a share of third place in the drivers standings.

In what turned out to be rather a processional race, Zuber held on to second place to the flag as well, though offered little in the way of a challenge to the leading ART car. Karun Chandhok held on to third place, while series leader Romain Grosjean cemented his championship lead with fourth.

Nico Hulkenburg took fifth place while the final point went to Sergio Perez in sixth, one spot ahead of feature race winner Alberto Valerio.

The only real incidents of note involved Lucas di Grassi, who managed to stall on the grid and ruined his hopes of a second sprint race win in a row, and Edorado Mortara, who spent the race putting in a sterling recovery drive from the back of the grid, but ended the day pointless after his engine expires with three laps to go.

  Race Result
   
Pos Driver Team Time Pts
1 Pastor Maldonado
ART Grand Prix
35:27.955 6
2 Andi Zuber
Fisichella +0.618 5
3 Karun Chandhok
Ocean +3.417 4
4 Romain Grosjean
Barwa Addax
+3.447 3
5 Nico Hulkenburg
ART Grand Prix
+3.856 2
6 Sergio Perez
Arden +3.936 1
7 Alberto Valerio
Piquet +4.316 
8 Michael Herck
DPR +4.524 
9 Roldan Rodriguez
Piquet +5.030 
10 Vitaly Petrov
Barwa Addax
+5.463 

11 Alvaro Parente (Ocean) +5.916, 12 Jerome D'Ambrosio (DAMS) +6.553, 13 Giedo van der Garde (iSport) +7.188, 14 Davide Valsecchi (Durango) +8.339, 15 Javier Villa (Super Nova) +15.244, 16 Luca Filippi (Super Nova) +34.869, 17 Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) +36.225, 18 Ricardo Teixeira (Trident) +36.688, 19 Lucas di Grassi (Racing Eng) +1 lap, 20 Davide Rigon (Trident) +1 lap, R Edoardo Mortara (Arden) 19 laps, R Dani Clos (Racing Eng) 19 laps, R Nelson Panciatici (Durango) 17 laps, R Luiz Razia (Fisichella) 11 laps, R Diego Nunes (iSport) 0 laps, R Giacomo Ricci (DPR) 0 laps.

Drivers Standings -
1 Grosjean 40pts, 2 Petrov 33pts, 3 Maldonado, Hulkenburg 26pts, 5 di Grassi 24pts, 6 d'Ambrosio 18pts, 7 Valerio 16pts, 8 Zuber 14pts, 9 Filippi 13pts, 10 Mortara 10pts, 11 Chandhok 9pts, 12 Villa 7pts, 13 Valsecchi, Perez 6pts, 15 van der Garde 5pts, 16 Kobayashi 3pts.

Team Standings -
1 Barwa Addax 73pts, 2 ART Grand Prix 52pts, 3 Racing Engineering 24pts, 4 DAMS 21pts, 5 Super Nova 20pts, 6 Arden, Piquet GP 16pts, 8 Fisichella 14pts, 9 Ocean Racing 9pts, 10 Durango 6pts, 11 iSport 5pts.

 

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