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Esteban Gutierrez takes first GP2 win in Valencia

Esteban Gutierrez took his maiden GP2 victory in dominant fashion in the sprint race on the streets of Valencia

The ART driver and Sauber Formula 1 reserve pounced on a mistake by polesitter Josef Kral (Arden) under braking for Turn 2 at a restart to take the lead. From there he took a few laps to settle down, before easing away from the chasing pack.

Luiz Razia also passed Kral on the restart, but the AirAsia driver could not hang onto the race leader. In the end, he did a solid job of keeping championship frontrunner Giedo van der Garde (Addax) at bay throughout the race.

Van der Garde made his way up from seventh to fourth on the opening lap, and on lap four he and Dani Clos were past Kral, who would later spin out.

The race remained pretty static at the front until the closing stages, when fourth-placed Clos' Racing Engineering car started to lose pace. AirAsia's Davide Valsecchi made easy work of the Spaniard three laps from the end, while Michael Herck (Coloni) failed with an attack on the final lap to move up from sixth.

Gutierrez's team-mate Jules Bianchi charged from 24th on the grid to seventh, just missing out on the points. The Frenchman was given a scare as he out-dragged Kevin Mirocha to the line though, as the Ocean driver made a dangerous swerve towards him in a last ditch attempt to keep the place.

Championship leader Romain Grosjean's race lasted only five corners. The DAMS driver made contact with two cars under braking for Turn 2, and then spun into the path of Rodolfo Gonzalez and Charles Pic three corners later to bring out the safety car.

Results - 23 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                  43m34.905s
 2.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia               + 12.995s
 3.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax                 + 13.842s
 4.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia               + 26.633s
 5.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering    + 30.130s
 6.  Michael Herck        Coloni                + 30.374s
 7.  Jules Bianchi        ART                   + 34.651s
 8.  Kevin Mirocha        Ocean                 + 34.677s
 9.  Julian Leal          Rapax                 + 36.728s
10.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                  + 37.615s
11.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport                + 40.932s
12.  Sam Bird             iSport                + 42.599s
13.  Christian Vietoris   Racing Engineering    + 44.840s
14.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax                 + 46.014s
15.  Luca Filippi         Super Nova            + 46.777s
16.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova            + 57.433s
17.  Johnny Cecotto       Ocean               + 1m08.309s
18.  Alvaro Parente       Carlin              + 1m11.936s

Retirements:

     Stefano Coletti      Trident                 21 laps
     Kevin Ceccon         Coloni                  21 laps
     Josef Kral           Arden                   14 laps
     Jolyon Palmer        Arden                   14 laps
     Max Chilton          Carlin                   3 laps
     Charles Pic          Addax                    0 laps
     Romain Grosjean      DAMS                     0 laps
     Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident                  0 laps

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