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Monza GP2: Adrian Quaife-Hobbs grabs maiden GP2 win

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs scored his first GP2 Series victory in the Monza sprint race on Sunday morning, leading from start to finish after poleman Alexander Rossi made a poor getaway

Hilmer driver Quaife-Hobbs took full advantage from the start as Rossi stuttered away and third-placed starter James Calado (ART) failed to get off the line at all.

Julian Leal leapt into second for Racing Engineering ahead of Russian Time's Sam Bird, but both were hit by Stephane Richelmi at the first corner and lucky to escape damage.

As Richelmi pitted for a new front wing, and DAMS team-mate Marcus Ericsson also suffered a puncture, Quaife-Hobbs extended a 1s lead by lap four.

The track was then hit by a brief rain shower on lap nine, which caused both Leal and Bird to overshoot the Rettifilo chicane.

Rossi, who had recovered in fourth after his poor start, got a great run through Curva Grande and passed both of them with a brave lunge at Roggia.

The gap between the leaders fluctuated as the rain continued to fall sporadically, but Quaife-Hobbs held on, despite flirting with the gravel at the final corner, to win by 1.8s from Rossi.

Leal kept Bird at bay for third, with Bird's team-mate Tom Dillmann in fifth.

Crucially, championship leader Fabio Leimer grabbed the two points for fastest lap on his way to sixth, which halved the points that Bird should have gained by finishing two places ahead of him, so the difference between them is now six points.

Rio Haryanto just missed out on fastest lap by 0.05s in seventh, having also saved his tyres until the end, with Johnny Cecotto Jr just grabbing the final point from Dani Clos.

Erstwhile series frontrunners Stefano Coletti and Felipe Nasr fought out a brilliant duel for 12th after their disasters yesterday, but again recorded zero points and have it all to do to overhaul Leimer and Bird.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos Driver                Team                    Time/Gap
 1. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs   Hilmer                 32m51.149s
 2. Alexander Rossi       Caterham                +1.849s
 3. Julian Leal           Racing Engineering      +4.335s
 4. Sam Bird              Russian Time            +5.468s
 5. Tom Dillmann          Russian Time            +8.636s
 6. Fabio Leimer          Racing Engineering      +12.037s
 7. Rio Haryanto          Addax                   +14.899s
 8. Johnny Cecotto Jr.    Arden                   +17.338s
 9. Dani Clos             MP Motorsport           +17.842s
10. Jolyon Palmer         Carlin                  +23.973s
11. Sergio Canamasas      Caterham                +25.646s
12. Felipe Nasr           Carlin                  +26.088s
13. Stefano Coletti       Rapax                   +26.553s
14. Rene Binder           Lazarus                 +28.119s
15. Mitchell Evans        Arden                   +28.504s
16. Simon Trummer         Rapax                   +29.004s
17. Jon Lancaster         Hilmer                  +29.588s
18. Jake Rosenzweig       Addax                   +36.746s
19. Daniel de Jong        MP Motorsport           +43.458s
20. Vittorio Ghirelli     Lazarus                 +47.238s
21. Nathanael Berthon     Trident                 +50.257s
22. Daniel Abt            ART                     +1m12.318s
23. Marcus Ericsson       DAMS                    +1 lap
24. Sergio Campana        Trident                 +1 lap
25. Stefano Richelmi      DAMS                    +1 lap
26. James Calado          ART                     +2 laps


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