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Davide Valsecchi continues GP2 winning streak in Bahrain

Davide Valsecchi was once again in a class of his own as he wrapped up his third GP2 win in Bahrain in a week

The DAMS driver ran second initially at Sakhir, as poleman Giedo van der Garde made a good start and held on at the front in his Caterham machine.

The Dutchman stretched the lead to as much as 1.8 seconds, but as soon as tyre wear became as issue, Valsecchi homed into view and van der Garde was powerless to fend off the championship leader.

In fact van der Garde slipped behind the well-driven Racing Engineering car of Fabio Leimer too. Following the mandatory pitstops the Swiss even closed in on the leading yellow and black DAMS machine, but a series of fast laps took Valsecchi way out of reach and a hat-trick of Sakhir wins was confirmed.

Van der Garde held on for third, but the main action was behind him. Marcus Ericsson made a storming start to move his iSport car from ninth to fourth, but in the closing stages his tyres were shot and he tumbled down the order.

Arden's Luiz Razia was the first to profit, and he just held off the impressive Max Chilton for fourth. Chilton's Carlin team-mate Rio Haryanto produced a charging drive to take sixth, while in the second DAMS car Felipe Nasr was in great form - passing Esteban Gutierrez (Lotus) and Fabrizio Crestani (Lazarus) in one sensational move on his way to seventh.

Ericsson held on for eighth and pole for the sprint race on Saturday, while Tom Dillman (Rapax) and Johnny Cecotto Jr (Addax) took the final points in ninth and 10th.

Results - 32 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                 57m35.088s
 2.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering     + 7.711s
 3.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham              + 14.824s
 4.  Luiz Razia           Arden                 + 24.142s
 5.  Max Chilton          Carlin                + 24.705s
 6.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin                + 40.965s
 7.  Felipe Nasr          DAMS                  + 45.772s
 8.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport                + 50.645s
 9.  Tom Dillmann         Rapax                 + 52.522s
10.  Johnny Cecotto       Addax                 + 55.578s
11.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus                 + 56.211s
12.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  + 1m06.906s
13.  Brendon Hartley      Ocean               + 1m07.254s
14.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham            + 1m09.206s
15.  Simon Trummer        Arden               + 1m15.486s
16.  Julian Leal          Trident             + 1m16.363s
17.  James Calado         Lotus               + 1m20.506s
18.  Stephane Richelmi    Trident             + 1m21.441s
19.  Nigel Melker         Ocean               + 1m29.955s
20.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni              + 1m47.146s
21.  Stefano Coletti      Coloni                  + 1 lap
22.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus                 + 1 lap
23.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax                   + 1 lap

Retirements:

    Jolyon Palmer        iSport                  30 laps
    Fabrizio Crestani    Lazarus                 24 laps
    Dani Clos            Addax                    8 laps

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