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James Calado takes Abu Dhabi sprint race win on GP2 debut weekend

James Calado crowned his debut weekend in GP2 with victory for ART in the Abu Dhabi sprint race

This year's GP3 runner-up started from reversed grid pole position for the second race of the non-championship event after finishing eighth in yesterday's feature race, and kept the lead at the start, opening a 1.1 second gap over Antonio Felix da Costa (Ocean) on the first lap.

Marcus Ericsson (iSport) passed da Costa for second place into the Turn 8 chicane on lap nine and took up the chase, but despite closing to within a second of the leader, he proved unable to mount a serious attack and had to settle for second.

Ericsson's team-mate, Tom Dillmann, picked up the final podium slot after first da Costa and then AirAsia's Luiz Razia were hit with drive-through penalties for short-cutting the track and ignoring yellow flags respectively.

Jolyon Palmer backed up his maiden GP2 podium in the feature race with a solid run to fourth for Addax, finishing well clear of a stunning battle that could have resulted in any number of drivers claiming fifth place.

In the end, it was Esteban Gutierrez who took the position after climbing four places with a brilliant last lap. The ART driver started 21st on the grid, having been delayed in the feature race with rear wing damage, but after Stefano Coletti (Coloni) crashed on the last lap following contact with Fabio Leimer (Racing Engineering) he took advantage of the delay to work his way up to fifth.

Kevin Ceccon claimed what would normally have been the final point for Coloni ahead of AirAsia duo Alexander Rossi and Razia.

Results - 22 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  James Calado            ART                  41m26.194s
 2.  Marcus Ericsson         iSport                 + 1.770s
 3.  Tom Dillmann            iSport                 + 7.695s
 4.  Jolyon Palmer           Addax                 + 13.040s
 5.  Esteban Gutierrez       ART                   + 27.012s
 6.  Kevin Ceccon            Coloni                + 28.025s
 7.  Alexander Rossi         AirAsia               + 29.909s
 8.  Luiz Razia              AirAsia               + 30.022s
 9.  Dani Clos               Rapax                 + 30.139s
10.  Fabio Leimer            Racing Engineering    + 30.570s
11.  Fabio Onidi             Super Nova            + 33.066s
12.  Josef Kral              Arden                 + 40.517s
13.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Ocean                 + 44.351s
14.  Jake Rosenzweig         Addax                 + 45.524s
15.  Simon Trummer           Arden                 + 45.921s
16.  Max Chilton             Carlin                + 46.846s
17.  Jan Charouz             Carlin                + 48.347s
18.  Stephane Richelmi       Trident               + 48.702s
19.  Nathanael Berthon       Racing Engineering    + 49.101s
20.  Nigel Melker            DAMS                  + 49.778s
21.  Julian Leal             Trident               + 50.399s
22.  Nicolas Marroc          Ocean                 + 53.398s
23.  Giacomo Ricci           Super Nova            + 59.543s
24.  Rio Haryanto            DAMS                + 1m12.642s

Retirements:

     Stefano Coletti         Coloni                  21 laps
     Mihai Marinescu         Rapax                   10 laps

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