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The GP2 field had their second outing of the season in Monaco, with the highly-coveted wins around the Monte Carlo street track set to be heavily contested by the 24 car field. In the end, there was crashes, action and another pair of surprise winners.

The GP2 Series followed the Formula One circus to the Monaco GP circuit for rounds three and four of the 2010 championship, after a confused opening pair of rounds in Barcelona a week ago. Those two rounds had seen Arden driver Charles Pic at the top of the championship standings, thanks to his feature race win, but the title race was still to settle down into any sort of coherent order.

In the end, the Monaco rounds wouldn't help to sort out the championship picture at all, but did provide some typically frantic action. Good old GP2.

Qualifying

The shock pole winner was Dani Clos, the Spanish Racing Engineering emerging on top after an incident-filled qualifying session. The session began on a wet track, but the Monte Carlo streets dried out as the session went on, and Clos eventually pipped the Barwa Addax car of Sergio Perez to pole by just 0.033 seconds to take his first pole of his GP2 career.

Clos was confirmed as the pole sitter when Rapax driver Pastor Maldonado crashed late on in the session at Ste Devote, bringing out the yellow flags which ruined any chance of a final lap for the drivers. Maldonado's crash was added to when GP2 Asia champion Davide Valsecchi made the same error and hit the parked car of Maldonado. Valsecchi was given a five place grid penalty for the incident, relegating him to 12th.

The penalty for Valsecchi topped off a nightmare session for iSport, with Oliver Turvey stick at the back of the grid after damaging his front wing.

Despite the crash, Maldonado lined up third behind Clos and Perez, with Alberto Valerio a surprise fourth for Scuderia Coloni. Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing) and Jules Bianchi (ART Grand Prix) completed the top six. Points leader Charles Pic had a poor session, and could only qualify 18th in his Arden-run car.

Monaco GP2 Grid Positions:
1 Dani Clos (Racing Eng) 1:37.572, 2 Sergio Perez (Addax) +0.033, 3 Pastor Maldonado (Rapax) +0.940, 4 Alberto Valerio (Coloni) +1.329, 5 Fabio Leimer (Ocean) +1.500, 6 Jules Bianchi (ART) +1.574, 7 Jerome D'Ambrosio (DAMS) +1.791, 8 Christian Vietoris (Racing Eng) +1.841, 9 Luiz Razia (Rapax) +1.972, 10 Sam Bird (ART) +2.066, 11 Giedo van der Garde (Addax) +2.240, 12* Davide Valsecchi (iSport) +1.683, 13 Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova) +2.254, 14 Ho-Pin Tung (DAMS) +2.354, 15 Adrian Zaugg (Trident) +2.665, 16 Max Chilton (Ocean) +2.923, 17 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +2.948, 18 Charles Pic (Arden) +3.195, 19 Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden) +3.309, 20 Josef Kral (Super Nova) +3.401, 21 Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Coloni) +4.161, 22 Michael Herck (DPR) +4.467, 23 Johnny Cecotto (Trident) +5.518, 24 Oliver Turvey (iSport) +6.023.
* After 5 place grid penalty

Feature Race

On raceday, though, Clos lost the lead at the very start, dropping back from first to third having been swamped by Perez and Maldonado. The Mexican driver then controlled the feature race from start to finish, and took his first ever GP2 race win and the championship lead to boot.

Perez eased to the checkered flag despite a mid-race safety car, caused by a big shunt at the Swimming Pool for DAMS Renault Jr driver Ho-Pin Tung. Before the intervention of the safety car, Perez had been 5.2 seconds ahead, and although he couldn't extend a similar lead when racing resumed, he still easily held off Maldonado to take victory.

Maldonado's second place was still a good return for the Rapax driver, and he was well clear of Clos, who nevertheless held on for his second podium finish in a feature race this season. Clos finished clear of Bianchi, who scored his first points of the season in 4th after making up time during the mandatory stops and then holding off Valerio's challenge.

The Coloni man came home 5th then, ahead of Giedo van der Garde (Addax), Luiz Razia (Rapax) and Jerome D'Ambrosio (DAMS), who took the final point and pole position for the sprint race.

Other potential frontrunners had dismal times of it. Having been penalised on the grid, Valsecchi's race was a nightmare, firstly damaging his rear wing after being hit by the Ocean Racing car of Max Chilton on the opening lap, then tagging the barriers late on and damaging his suspension.

Sam Bird, meanwhile, was having a strong race in the second ART car before a botched pit stop relegated him down the order, while his countryman Turvey's recovery drive from the back never really got going, with the iSport man only improving to 16th by the end of the race. Bird's issues were compounded after the race when he was given a 25 second penalty for short-cutting the Nouvelle chicane too many times during the race.

11 Charles Pic (Arden International) +53.977, 12 Marcus Ericsson (Super Nova) +54.913, 13 Josef Kral (Super Nova) +57.571, 14 Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering) +58.636, 15 Oliver Turvey (iSport International) +59.942, 16 Michael Herck (DPR) +1:03.008, 17 Giacomo Ricci (DPR) +1:03.419, 18 Sam Bird (ART Grand Prix) +1:24.160*, Ret Davide Valsecchi (iSport International) 21 laps, Ret Vladimer Arabadzhiev (Scuderia Coloni) 19 laps, Ret Ho-Pin Tung (DAMS) 13 laps, Ret Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing) 0 laps, Ret Max Chilton (Ocean Racing) 0 laps, Ret Adrian Zaugg (Trident) 0 laps.
* - Includes 25 second penalty for short-cutting corner.

Sprint Race

D'Ambrosio started the Saturday sprint race on pole, then, and went on to dominate the event for the newly-Renault coloured DAMS team, taking his first win in GP2 in the process.

He secured victory despite massive pressure from the Addax car of van der Garde, who had lost the Balgian at the start, but got back onto his tail after a pair of crashes for Valerio and the Arden car of Rodolfo Gonzalez triggered a mid-race safety car. But despite the pressure, D'Ambrosio hung on for the win, with van der Garde taking second place.

Behind the front two, there was a good battle for the final podium place, with ART'S Bianchi overcoming the lack of overtaking spots at the twisty and tight Monte Carlo track to pick off Virgin test driver Luiz Razia in the closing stages.

Razia slipped further back before the checkered flag, sliding wide on the penultimate lap and allowing surprise package Johnny Cecotto Jr up to fourth place for Trident Racing. Razia came home in a disappointed fifth place, with Feature Race winner Sergio Perez taking the final sprint point in 6th.

Barcelona race winner Charle Pic came home seventh, just outside the points, ahead of the two Super Nova cars of Josef Kral and Marcus Ericsson, while the second ART car of Sam Bird was 10th, his recovery drive from his penalty-induced 18th place grid spot helped by a number of crashes, including one for feature race podium man Dani Clos, and a number of drive-through penalties, including one for Pastor Maldonado for jumping the start.

The mixed-up first four race results in the 2010 GP2 Series, which has seen four different winners in the first four races, has kept the title battle very tight. Perez currently leads by two points, from Maldonado and Clos, as the teams head for rounds 5 and 6 of the championship in Turkey in two weeks time.

11 Pastor Maldonado (Rapax Team) +10.465, 12 Adrian Zaugg (Trident Racing) +11.239, 13. Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Scuderia Coloni) +12.591, 14 Max Chilton (Ocean Racing Technology) +25.246, 15 Oliver Turvey (iSport International) +25.461, 16 Davide Valsecchi (iSport International) +25.703, 17 Fabio Leimer (Ocean Racing Technology) +26.063, Ret Michael Herck (DPR) 22 laps, Ret Ho-Pin Tung (DAMS) 20 laps, Ret Giacomo Ricci (DPR) 17 laps, Ret Alberto Valerio (Scuderia Coloni) 14 laps, Ret Rodolfo Gonzalez (Arden International) 14 laps, Ret Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) 8 laps, Ret Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering) 0 laps.

Drivers Championship -
1 Perez 17pts, 2 Maldonado, Clos 15pts, 4 Razia, Bianchi 11pts, 6 Pic 10pts, 7 Leimer, van der Garde, Ricci 8pts, 10 D'Ambrosio 7pts, 11 Turvey 6pts, 12 Bird 5pts, 13 Valerio 4pts, 14 Cecotto Jr 3pts.

Teams Championship -
1 Rapax Team 26pts, 2 Barwa Addax Team 25pts, 3 Racing Engineering, ART Grand Prix 15pts, 5 Arden International 10pts, 6 Ocean Racing Technology, DPR 8pts, 8 DAMS 7pts, 9 iSport International 6pts, 10 Scuderia Coloni 4pts, 11 Trident 3pts.