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Grosjean dominates Imola race one

Romain Grosjean took the lead in the GP2 Asia standings with a dominant victory in the first race at Imola

The DAMS driver commanded the race from the beginning, resisting an initial challenge from a fast-starting Giedo van der Garde (Addax) in the early laps, while front row starter Sam Bird messed up his getaway and immediately fell from second to eighth.

Grosjean started to pull away from lap four onwards, and he went on to take the win by more than 14 seconds.

Van der Garde took a solid second after making his way up from fifth on the grid on the run to the first corner on the opening lap. He appeared to be a match for Grosjean as he stuck to his tail at first, but in the end he had to settle for a lonely run to second.

Former points leader Jules Bianchi came home third for ART after a more eventful race. The Frenchman dropped to fifth at the start and was the meat in an Arden sandwich in the early laps as he battled with Josef Kral and Jolyon Palmer.

But Palmer damaged his front wing early on when he clipped Bianchi on the run to Rivazza, and the Frenchman disposed of Kral at the end of lap six.

That left him fourth behind Michael Herck, who he closed on before jumping the Coloni driver during the pitstops.

Herck had to settle for fourth, while Trident's Stefano Coletti put in an impressive drive to leap from 16th to fifth.

Davide Valsecchi survived a late off at Acque Minerali to hang on to sixth for AirAsia, while the points were completed by Fabio Leimer (Rapax) and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering). The Spaniard will take pole for Sunday's race after charging from 20th on the grid.

The drivers that came through from the lower end of the grid were aided by plenty of incidents involving early frontrunners. iSport team-mates Bird and Marcus Ericsson were in the points prior to a collision with each other, while Kral and Palmer both fell back during the pitstops.

Kral's fortunes were not helped by a brutal scrap with ART's Esteban Gutierrez, who was himself trying to make up ground after going off while running ninth on lap five.

Results - 35 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                 52m59.103s
 2.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax                 + 14.349s
 3.  Jules Bianchi        ART                   + 17.527s
 4.  Michael Herck        Coloni                + 21.502s
 5.  Stefano Coletti      Trident               + 41.228s
 6.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia               + 44.563s
 7.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax                 + 51.867s
 8.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering    + 52.813s
 9.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova            + 53.964s
10.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident               + 54.224s
11.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport                + 54.661s
12.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                   + 55.390s
13.  Josef Kral           Arden                 + 55.840s
14.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                + 1m07.700s
15.  Oliver Turvey        Ocean               + 1m19.721s
16.  Johnny Cecotto       Super Nova          + 1m20.567s
17.  Julian Leal          Rapax               + 1m22.066s
18.  Andrea Caldarelli    Ocean               + 1m24.224s
19.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden               + 1m24.503s
20.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin              + 1m26.672s
21.  Charles Pic          Addax               + 1m29.215s
22.  Max Chilton          Carlin              + 1m31.023s
23.  Luca Filippi         Coloni              + 1m31.058s

Retirements:

     Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering      15 laps
     Sam Bird             iSport                   7 laps
     Luiz Razia           AirAsia                  0 laps

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