Luca Filippi dominates first GP2 race at Monza for Coloni
Luca Filippi hauled himself into contention for second in the GP2 championship with a dominant win on home soil at Monza
The Coloni driver took the lead from polesitter Charles Pic off the line, and then held on to the position despite locking up and cutting across the first chicane.
From there he controlled the race, and also came out on top of a fierce fight for fastest lap which netted him another potentially crucial point.
Pic (Addax) survived late pressure from DAMS' Romain Grosjean to take second, and he now holds the same place in the standings, just one point ahead of Filippi. Four drivers are covered by three points in that battle, with Giedo van der Garde (Addax) and Jules Bianchi (ART) also in the hunt.
Van der Garde had a day to forget, pitting to repair damage early on then receiving a drive-through penalty for cutting the first chicane. Bianchi raced his way from 19th to 11th in the early laps, then jumped AirAsia's Luiz Razia during the pitstops and took advantage of drive through penalties for Carlin's Alvaro Parente and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) to move up to eighth place.
That result gives the Frenchman hope of overhauling Pic and Filippi, as he will start from pole in the season finale while they will share row four.
Behind the top three, Sam Bird came through the field to take fourth for iSport from 10th on the grid, while category veteran Adam Carroll took fifth for Super Nova.
Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering) and Fabio Leimer (Rapax) were the other points finishers, just ahead of Bianchi.
Results - 30 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Luca Filippi Coloni 47m47.704s 2. Charles Pic Addax + 5.627s 3. Romain Grosjean DAMS + 6.214s 4. Sam Bird iSport + 9.992s 5. Adam Carroll Super Nova + 14.904s 6. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering + 16.710s 7. Fabio Leimer Rapax + 18.058s 8. Jules Bianchi ART + 22.787s 9. Esteban Gutierrez ART + 28.444s 10. Luiz Razia AirAsia + 31.661s 11. Pal Varhaug DAMS + 36.000s 12. Alvaro Parente Carlin + 44.096s 13. Dani Clos Racing Engineering + 46.877s 14. Marcus Ericsson iSport + 49.690s 15. Stephane Richelmi Trident + 50.876s 16. Julian Leal Rapax + 58.003s 17. Johnny Cecotto Ocean + 1m06.275s 18. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova + 1m10.221s 19. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 1m20.119s 20. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia + 1 lap 21. Giedo van der Garde Addax + 1 lap 22. Brendon Hartley Ocean + 1 lap Retirements: Max Chilton Carlin 2 laps Josef Kral Arden 1 lap Jolyon Palmer Arden 1 lap Michael Herck Coloni 1 lap
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