GP2 news
Grosjean takes third win
05 April 2008 / Results / PhotosRoman Grosjean is close to becoming the first GP2 Asia series champion. The Frenchman won Saturday's race in Bahrain, while his main rivals Petrov and Fauzy failed to score any points. Grosjean now has the opportunity to clinch the title this Sunday already. In Sakhir Buemi and Kobayashi joined Grosjean on the podium.
Championship leader Grosjean started on pole position on Saturday, but didn't manage to take off well and let both iSport International men take the lead - Chandhok in front of Senna. Further back in the pack, Luca Filippi and Marco Bonanomi crashed after the first corner which led to an early safety car. Most of the cars came back to the pits with the exception of Marcello Puglisi, Hiroki Yoshimoto and Milos Pavlovic. Karun Chandhok came out of the crowded pits but quickly spun in his out-lap on cold tyres.
Behind the safety car, the BCN Competicion Serbian led Japanese Yoshimoto, Adrian Valles, Romain Grosjean and DPR's Diego Nunes. When the track cleared, Grosjean made a strong move on Valles at the end of the main straight. In front, Pavlovic, much slower than the cars behind him, fought hard to keep the lead, but eventually went a little wide and let Yoshimoto, Grosjean and Valles pass. Soon after that, Grosjean overtook the Qi-Meritus Mahara driver and led comfortably to the end, with an almost 15 second gap to Trust Team Arden's Buemi.
The Swiss drove a strong race: starting 8th on the grid, he managed to come back and fight both Valles and Kobayashi to claim second. The Dams driver eventually landed third place. Bruno Senna finished fourth after he was blocked behind his teammate in the pits. He fought his way back and overtook Valles in the last stages of the race.
Today was another disappointing race for front-row starter Karun Chandhok, but he managed to work his way back to eighth. He will hence start on pole tomorrow, next to Diego Nunes.
Speaking about his victory Romain Grosjean said: "My start was, once again, far than perfect… We had a good pit-stop and when I got back out, I was behind Valles. At the restart, I overtook him and was quickly behind Yoshimoto. Pavlovic went off line and we passed him. After I got passed Hiroki, I applied myself not to make any mistake. This is the longest race I've ever had… I'm one step closer to the title, but I'm mainly focusing on delivering a good performance tomorrow."
Sébastien Buemi commented on his race: "I was so frustrated after the feature race in Sepang, this result is a great satisfaction. I didn't make a good start and lost some positions, but after that, I fought back. We worked a lot on the car and I almost got fastest lap today. For tomorrow, I want to score some more points."
Kamui Kobayashi said: "I touched someone at the start because I got stuck between two cars. I didn't have enough space… After that, I had some problems with the tyres, but I managed to get on the podium. This is another great result for the team and myself."
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Paul Ricard