Dominant since the beginning of the opening round of the third GP2 Asia Series in Abu Dhabi, Davide Valsecchi took an impressive first victory for iSport International today in the feature race at Yas Marinal Circuit. Losing the lead twice, the Italian fought back to reclaim it and managed a 5.4 second gap at the chequered flag to countryman Luca Filippi.
Valsecchi failed to launch well from pole position while rookie Sam Bird at ART did not, and he easily took the lead in the first corner. But a few meters further, the Italian put pressure on the Brit who eventually gave way and Valsecchi then pulled away. Behind the pair, with Fabio Leimer and Roldan Rodriguez stalling respectively on the pre-grid and on the grid, Luca Filippi and James Jakes fought for third place to the advantage of the Super Nova racer. The two men then attacked and passed Bird who was notably slower. Filippi eventually took second place and put his head down to try and catch up with the leader.
Jakes was the first of the top three to observe his compulsory pitstop one lap before Valsecchi who consequently left Filippi to take control of the race. While his countryman was pitting, the Meritus racer pushed as hard as he could. Although he pitted just as a safety car was deployed on Lap 12 following a collision between Razia and Vietoris on turn 12, Filippi managed to stay ahead of Valsecchi at the restart, with James Jakes running in third place ahead of Bird, Alexander Rossi, Josef Kral, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Christian Vietoris.
Running half a second quicker than Filippi, Valsecchi closed in on his countryman until on Lap 19 he passed the Meritus driver in a bold move that saw the two cars running side by side in turns 11, 12 and 13 before Filippi eventually gave way in Turn 14. After that, Valsecchi raced to the chequered flag adding consecutive quickest laptimes to increase his advantage. Not even a brief second safety car period in the very last stages of the race after Plamen Kralev span and stopped on the track in Sector 2 could prevent Valsecchi from securing his first win in a GP2 feature race.
Behind him, although Jakes tried to overtake Filippi, the Italian kept the Brit in check. Alexander Rossi (Ocean Racing) crossed the finish line in fourth ahead of Josef Kral (Super Nova), Christian Vietoris (DAMS) and Johnny Cecotto (Trident). Bird had to retire in the second-to-last lap following a brake problem. The ART man’s bad fortune promoted iSport’s Oliver Turvey to eighth place and tomorrow’s reversed grid pole position.
Abu Dhabi – Race 1
Driver / Team 1. Davide Valsecchi iSport International 2. Luca Filippi MalyasiQI-Merotus.com 3. James Jakes Super Nova Racing 4. Alexander Rossi Ocean Racing Technology 5. Josef Kral Super Nova Racing 6. Christian Vietoris DAMS 7 Johnny Cecotto Trident Racing 8. Oliver Turvey iSport International 9. Edoardo Piscopo DAMS 10. Roldan Rodriguez Scuderia Coloni 11. Marcus Ericsson ART Grand Prix 12. William Bratt Scuderia Coloni 13. Michael Herck DPR 14. Rodolfo Gonzalez ArdenInternational 15. Daniel Zampieri Piquet GP 16. Max Chilton Barwa Addax Team 17. Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology 18. Sam Bird ART Grand Prix
Fastest lap time: Davide Valsecchi (iSport International): 1:53.341 on lap 32
