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Filippi gives Meritus first GP2 victory

Luca Filippi gave the Meritus team its first GP2 victory with a flawless performance in the Asia series feature race at Sakhir

Meritus and Filippi had won a GP2 Asia race together on the road in the inaugural championship's Sentul event two years ago, but were later disqualified because incorrect tyres had been fitted.

This time Filippi held the lead from pole position, and resisted race-long pressure from series champion Davide Valsecchi.

The pair pitted on the same lap, but Meritus kept its driver ahead of Valsecchi, and Filippi was able to inch away from his rival thereafter.

Even a late safety car - caused by eighth-placed Christian Vietoris (DAMS) getting tangled up with backmarker Plamen Kralev's Trident car - could not disrupt Filippi's progress.

Charles Pic ran in third throughout for Arden. Having made a slightly earlier pitstop, the Frenchman got alongside Valsecchi as the champion rejoined following his tyre change, but was unable to make a move stick.

Alvaro Parente took fourth for Coloni, with DPR's Giacomo Ricci sweeping through into fifth when Jules Bianchi (ART) and Javier Villa (Arden) banged wheels at Turn 4 following the restart. Bianchi's team-mate Sam Bird also capitalised on the incident and grabbed sixth, while Bianchi made further contact with Meritus' Alexander Rossi as he tried to regain momentum and dropped back to 10th.

Edoardo Piscopo will start from pole for DAMS tomorrow having taken eighth today - just ahead of iSport's Oliver Turvey, who recovered well after stalling at the start.

Pos  Driver                Team            Time/Gap
 1.  Luca Filippi          Meritus     1h06m15.383s
 2.  Davide Valsecchi      iSport          + 2.058s
 3.  Charles Pic           Arden           + 3.990s
 4.  Alvaro Parente        Coloni          + 6.863s
 5.  Giacomo Ricci         DPR             + 8.085s
 6.  Sam Bird              ART            + 14.845s
 7.  Javier Villa          Arden          + 15.305s
 8.  Edoardo Piscopo       DAMS           + 15.503s
 9.  Oliver Turvey         iSport         + 15.684s
10.  Jules Bianchi         ART            + 18.498s
11.  Alexander Rossi       Meritus        + 22.028s
12.  Vladimir Arabadzhiev  Rapax          + 22.260s
13.  Yelmer Buurman        Ocean          + 26.137s
14.  Dani Clos             Trident        + 26.749s
15.  Will Bratt            Coloni         + 28.031s
16.  Josef Kral            Super Nova     + 30.208s
17.  Jake Rosenzweig       Super Nova     + 31.799s
18.  Michael Herck         DPR            + 48.097s
19.  Max Chilton           Addax            + 1 lap

Retirement:

     Christian Vietoris    DAMS        21 laps
     Plamen Kralev         Trident     20 laps
     Rodolfo Gonzalez      Addax       15 laps
     Luiz Razia            Rapax       1 laps
     Fabio Leimer          Ocean       0 laps

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