in Bahrain Sprint Race
Starting from pole position on the reversed grid today, the GP2 debutant Sergio Perez at Barwa International Campos Team managed to lead from the start to the chequered flag. He had to cope with pressure from Durango’s Valsecchi who reduced the 2 second average gap in the last stages of the race, but Perez hold his own and claimed his first win.
With Giedo Van der Garde failing to get away for the formation lap, Davide Valsecchi in fourth place had thus a clean track in front of him for the start and took advantage of the situation to come out of the first corner in second position, with Nico Hülkenberg behind him. The Italian tried to stay as close as possible to the Campos man, but if Valsecchi had a quicker pace towards the last laps, he never could get close enough to really try to go for the win.
As Perez kept a steady gap between him and his closest rival, it was Jérôme d’Ambrosio who made the show: starting from seventh on the grid, he dropped to eighth after a relatively poor start. However, the Dams ace displayed outstanding driving skills, passing first his teammate Kamui Kobayashi, then Earl Bamber, Roldan Rodriguez – who was struggling with his tyres, Javier Villa five laps later and finally Nico Hülkenberg on the very last lap. He crossed the finish line in a well-deserved third position. Hülkenberg finished fourth ahead of Javier Villa. Championship leader and feature race winner Kamui Kobayashi grabbed the last point, finishing sixth of the event.
After this first round, Kamui Kobayashi is now leading Davide Valsecchi by 24 points to 34, ahead of Roldan Rodriguez just 2 points behind the Durango driver. The best performer of the weekend, Jérôme d’Ambrosio is now fourth with Javier Villa and Sergio Perez behind him on both 10 points.
Bahrain – Race 2
Driver /Team 1. Sergio Perez Barwa Int. Campos Team 2. Davide Valsecchi Durango 3. Jérôme d’Ambrosio Dams 4. Nico Hülkenberg ART Grand Prix 5. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing 6. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 7 Earl Bamber My Qi-Meritus.Mahara 8. Edoardo Mortara Ardent Int. Motorsport 9. Luiz Razia ArdenInt. Motorsport 10. Marco Bonanomi My Qi-Meritus.Mahara 11. Sakon Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 12. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Int. Campos Team 13. Yelmer Buurman Ocean Racing Technology 14. Giedo Van der Garde GFH Team iSport 15. Francesco Provenzano Trident Racing 16. Giacomo Ricci DPR 17. Fabrizio Crestani Ocean Racing Technology 18. Michael Herck DPR 19. AdrianValles Trident Racing 20. Michael Dalle Stelle Durango 21. Kevin Nai Chia Chen Fisichella Motor Sport Int. 22. Diego Nunes Piquet GP 23. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP
Not Classified
Rodolfo Gonzalez Fisichella Motor Sport Int. Hamad Al Fardan GFH Team iSport James Jakes Super Nova Racing