Romain Grosjean – Take Two
After his maiden win yesterday, Romain Grosjean snatched his second victory in an action-packed sprint race in Dubai. Starting eighth on the reversed
grid, the ART driver made an excellent start and managed to come out in 5th place from the first corner. While Karun Chandhok dropped from second to seventh due to a
clutch problem, Adrian Valles also made a great start and briefly passed leader Fauzy in the first corner, but then suffered from mechanical problems and had to
retire. The safety car came out on Lap 2 after Buemi and Puglisi touched and the Swiss had to stop. On Lap 4, Luca Filippi - then 2nd - was also forced to retire due
to a gear box problem. Grosjean was hence 4th. He had a wonderful restart and passed Chandhok at Turn 1. He then overtook Yoshimoto who was pushed
wide by backmarker Schleghelmilch. The RDD boy rapidly caught race leader Fauzy and passed him to finally cross the finish line as a winner for the second
time in less than 24 hours. Karun Chandhok finished third. Starting from the last row, Vitaly Petrov made a strong performance at the wheel of his Campos car and
finished 9th. Bruno Senna was almost getting back into the points when he had to go back to the pit because of a puncture he picked up while fighting with
Valsecchi. The two Durango boys scored points today. It is the first time that a rookie grabs victory twice in the opening of a GP2 Championship.
Last rookie to win the two races in the same event was Lewis Hamilton in Silverstone, 2006.
Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix): “I wasn’t really going for the win, but I was hoping for a podium. I knew I had the pace to do it. At
the restart, I was P4 and I passed Yoshimoto. That’s when I realize that I could go for the win. I honestly didn’t think I could achieve such a good result here.
However, it doesn’t mean anything: I’m still learning and I will now concentrate on Indonesia.”
Fairuz Fauzy (Super Nova Racing): “I had a good start and got passed by Valles briefly. I led for most of the race until I was struggling with oversteer. I
saw Romain catching up quickly and he passed me. I think that this is still a good result and I am now looking forward to Indonesia. ” Karun Chandhok
(iSport International): “I had a clutch problem at the start and that’s how I dropped from second to seventh. It’s a real shame and we have to analyse
exactly what happened. We had a real good pace here and we could have hoped for a better result. In Indonesia, we should also be competitive and
fight for the win.”
Dubai – Race Result Driver Team 1. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 2. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova Racing 3. Karun Chandhok iSport International 4. Hiroki Yoshimoto Qi-Meritus Mahara 5. Alberto Valerio Durango 6. Davide Valsecchi Durango 7. Andy Soucek DPR 8. Jerome d’Ambrosio Dams 9. Vitaly Petrov Barwa International Campos Team 10. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 11. Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 12. Stephen Jelley ART Grand Prix 13. Marco Bonanomi Piquet Sports 14. Milos Pavlovic BCN Competicion 15. Adam Khan Trust Team Arden 16. Jason Tahinci BCN Competicion 17. Michael Herck FMS International 18. Harald Schleghelmilch Trident Racing 19. Bruno Senna iSport International Not Classified Armaan Ebrahim – DPR Luca Filippi – Qi-Meritus Mahara Adrian Valles – FMS International Kamui Kobayashi – Dams Marcello Puglisi – Piquet Sports
Sébastien Buemi – Trust Team Arden Diego Nunes – Barwa International Campos Team
Fastest lap time: Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix) – 1:22.453 on lap 23
Championship Team Points 1. ART Grand Prix 19 2. iSport International 15 3. Qi-Meritus Mahara 10 4. Super Nova Racing 6 5. DPR 6 6. FMS International 5 7. Durango 3 8. Dams -- 9. Barwa International Campos Team -- 10. BCN Competicion -- 11. Trident Racing -- 12. Piquet Sports -- 13. Trust Team Arden -
