Mexican secures second in championship
Sergio Perez crushed his rivals with an unmatched display of speed on his way to a dominant win in today's feature race in Abu Dhabi, securing second place in the championship as he easily led the way home, greeting the chequered flag over twenty seconds ahead of Oliver Turvey and Sam Bird.
The Mexican's victory was set up when the lights went out: polesitter Turvey bogged down slightly as he got away, allowing Perez an easily line into the lead at turn one. Teammate Davide Valsecchi was also slow to get away, handing Romain Grosjean a simple line inside and through for P4, which improved by one when Fabio Leimer and Turvey touched wheels at the first corner, with the Swiss driver coming off worse.
Further back Giedo van der Garde and Jules Bianchi came together too: the Dutchman was left stranded on the outside of turn one, and when Adrian Zaugg also tipped into a spin a few corners later there was no choice but to bring out the safety car.
Further back Bird was lying in tenth after an incredible start from P18 on the grid, and when teammate Bianchi and Max Chilton came together one lap after the restart the Briton was up to an amazing P6: the team made a sharp call into the pits on lap 6 to see what they could do to help. Back on track Luiz Razia was pushing Grosjean hard for third, while Dani Clos and Valsecchi were squabbling over the positions behind: the pit call for Bird was the right one, with his rivals losing time fighting as Bird flew in clear air after his stop. Razia, Valsecchi and Clos stopped together on lap nine, with Bird slotting in ahead of the Spaniard, and a left rear tyre problem for Grosjean at his stop a lap later gave him another free position. At the front of the field Perez sailed serenely on, with Turvey unable to challenge and stopping for fresh rubber, with the Mexican finally coming in on lap 12.
Champion elect Pastor Maldonado was the only man left to stop, but a message from the stewards stated that he was going to have to make a drive through too, ruining any chance of a fight for points.
A clearly annoyed Maldonado left his stops until the last few laps, but Perez wasn't waiting around: he reclaimed the lead on track on lap 18 and was gone, while behind him Turvey drove a strong race for second. Razia and Valsecchi's races started to unravel under the harsh sun as they were unable to contain the pace of Bird and Clos: the pair had a fierce battle for the final podium position, with the Briton holding on by less than a second. Valsecchi managed to hold on for fifth place ahead of a fast charging Grosjean, with Razia just hanging on in front of tomorrow's poleman Josef Kral, who secured a splendid P8 on his return to the series.
1 4 S. PEREZ Barwa Addax Team 31 59:53.752 172.358 1:50.749 30 2 9 O. TURVEY iSport International 31 1:00:14.817 21.065 171.353 1:52.199 20 3 2 S. BIRD ART Grand Prix 31 1:00:23.447 29.695 8.630 170.945 1:52.059 21 4 7 D. CLOS Racing Engineering 31 1:00:24.194 30.442 0.747 170.910 1:51.852 25 5 10 D. VALSECCHI iSport International 31 1:00:30.366 36.614 6.172 170.619 1:52.419 23 6 12 R. GROSJEAN Dams 31 1:00:31.927 38.175 1.561 170.546 1:52.449 26 7 14 L. RAZIA Rapax 31 1:00:32.948 39.196 1.021 170.498 1:52.378 24 8 5 J. KRAL Super Nova Racing 31 1:00:33.476 39.724 0.528 170.473 1:52.403 21 9 21 B. HARTLEY Scuderia Coloni 31 1:00:34.431 40.679 0.955 170.428 1:52.343 26 10 17 R. GONZALEZ Arden International 31 1:00:43.456 49.704 9.025 170.006 1:52.843 17 11 6 M. ERICSSON Super Nova Racing 31 1:00:49.112 55.360 5.656 169.743 1:52.881 26 12 18 M. CHILTON Ocean Racing Technology 31 1:00:51.677 57.925 2.565 169.624 1:52.924 11 13 27 F. CRESTANI DPR 31 1:00:52.086 58.334 0.409 169.605 1:52.716 11 14 11 J. D'AMBROSIO Dams 31 1:00:52.588 58.836 0.502 169.581 1:52.779 17 15 20 J. JAKES Scuderia Coloni 31 1:00:54.979 61.227 2.391 169.470 1:52.887 13 16 26 M. HERCK DPR 31 1:00:55.930 62.178 0.951 169.426 1:52.773 31 17 15 P. MALDONADO Rapax 31 1:01:07.861 74.109 11.931 168.875 1:51.782 31 18 1 J. BIANCHI ART Grand Prix 31 1:01:23.398 89.646 15.537 168.163 1:50.832 19 19 24 F. LEO Trident Racing 31 1:01:30.057 96.305 6.659 167.859 1:53.500 15 20 16 C. PIC Arden International 30 59:56.561 1 LAP 1 LAP 166.664 1:51.743 24 NC 8 H. TUNG Racing Engineering 11 22:38.241 DNF 161.623 1:53.913 10 NC 19 F. LEIMER Ocean Racing Technology 7 16:13.056 DNF 143.410 1:59.497 4 NC 25 A. ZAUGG Trident Racing 0 DNF NC 3 G. VAN DER GARDE Barwa Addax Team 0 DNF
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