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Kobayashi leads DAMS one-two

Kamui Kobayashi extended his GP2 Asia points lead by leading a DAMS one-two in the first race in Bahrain

Pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg (ART) had led the early laps on his GP2 debut, but had Kobayashi glued to his rear wing and constantly looking for an opportunity to pass.

The Toyota Formula One test driver finally dived past his Williams counterpart on the 13th lap, and was then able to edge away.

Hulkenberg made his mandatory pitstop soon afterwards, and lost more ground due to an issue with a wheel change.

That allowed Kobayashi's DAMS teammate Jerome D'Ambrosio to emerge in second place, having earlier muscled his way past Edoardo Mortara's Arden car to take third as they lapped a backmarker.

Mortara held on to the final podium spot, under pressure from the recovering Hulkenberg, and with Davide Valsecchi (Durango) chasing them both home.

A few seconds behind, Piquet driver Roldan Rodriguez fended off iSport's Giedo van der Garde to take sixth, just ahead of Sergio Perez (Campos).

The race saw relatively little incident, but there was early disappointment for top ten qualifiers Sakon Yamamoto (ART) and Marco Bonanomi (Meritus), who both stalled on the grid.

Pos  Driver                Team          Time
 1.  Kamui Kobayashi       DAMS          1h00:10.318
 2.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     DAMS          + 5.892
 3.  Edoardo Mortara       Arden         + 18.570
 4.  Nico Hulkenberg       ART           + 19.436
 5.  Davide Valsecchi      Durango       + 20.368
 6.  Roldan Rodriguez      Piquet        + 24.076
 7.  Giedo van der Garde   iSport        + 24.748
 8.  Sergio Perez          Barwa Campos  + 27.462
 9.  Javier Villa          Super Nova    + 30.687
10.  Vitaly Petrov         Barwa Campos  + 36.702
11.  Earl Bamber           Qi-Meritus    + 38.042
12.  Hamad Al Fardan       iSport        + 51.424
13.  Diego Nunes           Piquet        + 55.560
14.  Luiz Razia            Arden         + 1:06.976
15.  Frankie Provenzano    Trident       + 1:14.584
16.  Rodolfo Gonzalez      FMS           + 1:18.339
17.  Sakon Yamamoto        ART           + 1:18.391
18.  Michael Herck         DPR           + 1:18.559
19.  Michael Dalle Stelle  Durango       + 1:46.185
20.  Marco Bonanomi        Qi-Meritus    + 1 lap
21.  Kevin Nai Chia Chen   FMS           + 2 laps
22.  James Jakes           Super Nova    + 3 laps

Retirements:

     Driver                Team          Laps
     Giacomo Ricci         DPR           21
     Adrian Valles         Trident       13
     Fabrizio Crestani     Ocean         0
     Yelmer Buurman        Ocean         0

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