Conway dominates GP2 Race 2

 Lights to flag victory for popular Englishman

Mike Conway stormed to victory in yesterday's race two in Monaco, leading from lights to flag to score a dominant first win in the series ahead of teammate Ho-Pin Tung and Alvaro Parente.

With  the  weather  looking  gloomy  overhead  the  Briton  lit  up  his  tyres  as  the  lights  went  out  to easily  cover  his  fellow  front  row  starting  teammate  to  be  first  through  Ste  Devote  and  lead  the field  up  the  hill. 

Behind  them  Roldan  Rodriguez  was  very  slow  away  from  third  position  and locked his brakes into the first corner, compressing the rest of the field other than Adrian Valles, who cut inside to get by as mayhem brewed behind them.

Christian Bakkerud was caught out by an early braking Andreas Zuber and took a roller coaster ride  over  the  Piquet  Sports  car  into  immediate  retirement,  while  the  sister  car  of  Pastor Maldonado  pushed  wide  to  the  left  and  squeezed  Karun  Chandhok  into  the  wall  and  off  again, taking both cars back across the track and into the opposite wall, prompting the first safety car period of the weekend.

As  Zuber  pitted  for  a  new  rear  wing  the  order  at  the  front  was  Conway, Tung, Parente, Valles, Rodriguez  and  Bruno  Senna,  with  Andy  Soucek  making  an  astonishing  start  to  move  up  to seventh  place  from  13th  on  the  grid. With the track soon clear they were released once again, with  Conway  setting  a  string  of  fastest  laps  to  build  a  massive  lead  over  his  teammate,  whose mirrors were full of Parente's Super Nova. But on lap eight all of his hard work was undone when Giorgio Pantano tried and failed to get past Marcello Puglisi at the new chicane:

Puglisi closed the door and the two drivers collided heavily, putting Pantano out on the spot, while at the same time Alberto Valerio lost his rear and spun into the  wall  after  Casino  square,  with the resultant debris for both incidents causing another safety car period. At the restart Conway just headed off into the distance once more as Parente continued his race long  quest  for  a  way  past  Tung. 

With  Valles  being  handed  a  drive  through  penalty  for  his start misdemeanour the field behind him moved up one position but were unable to get in touch with the determined Portuguese driver. Conway reeled out the laps to claim his victory by 18.4 seconds ahead of teammate Tung, who just held on from Parente to round out a 1-2 for his Trident team. Behind them the other points paying  positions  were  filled  by  Rodriguez,  Senna  and  Soucek,  who  scored  his  first  point  of  the season to finish a tough weekend on a high. Zuber claimed the fastest lap, although the point will go to Conway because of Zuber's pitstop, rounding out the repayment for the Briton's wretched luck in yesterday's race one in fine style.

Monaco – Race 2 Driver Team

1. Mike Conway Trident Racing

2 Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing

3. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing

4. Roldan Rodriguez Fisichella Motor Sport International

5 Bruno Senna iSport International

6. Andy Soucek DPR

7 Jérôme d’Ambrosio Dams

8. Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden

9. Diego Nunes DPR

10. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix

11. Sébastien Buemi Trust Team Arden

12. Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix

13. Javier Villa Racing Engineering

14. Ben Hanley Barwa International Campos Team

15. Vitaly Petrov Barwa International Campos Team

16. Adrian Valles BCN Competicion

17. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports

Fastest lap time: Mike Conway (Trident Racing)

Not Classified

Driver Team

Kamui Kobayashi Dams

Marcello Puglisi Durango

Alberto Valerio Durango

Adam Carroll Fisichella Motor Sport International

Karun Chandhok iSport International

Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports

Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing


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