Kobayashi storms to Dubai win
DAMS racer Kamui Kobayashi was unstoppable in the GP2 Asia feature race in Dubai today
The Japanese driver dominated the first part of the race from pole, but lost the lead during the pitstops to Vitaly Petrov.
Kobayashi then got delayed by the Campos driver and was jumped by championship leader Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet GP).
But Kobayashi responded, driving past Rodriguez with a great move into the downhill left-hander towards the end of the lap. He then duplicated the move on Petrov next time around and drove away into the distance.
Several drivers could have finished second, and Davide Valsecchi (Durango) it was who eventually took it. He had made a great start to run second early on, but fell back after the stops.
A great late charge took him past Rodriguez for third and both then overtook the struggling Petrov.
Behind Petrov, former British F3 front-runner Sergio Perez took sixth for Campos, but only thanks to the retirement of the rapid Pastor Maldonado, who had charged forward after starting 12th.
Maldonado's ART teammate Sakon Yamamoto had started alongside Kobayashi on the front row, but made a poor start and then went off on the second lap.
His recovery charge took him initially to eighth, which would have given him pole for tomorrow's sprint race. He was then overtaken in a sensational move around the outside of Jerome d'Ambrosio, but Maldonado's late retirement handed Yamamoto a lifeline.
He will therefore start from pole, but Kobayashi will take some beating - even starting from eighth - as he often proved a second per lap faster than the rest in race one.
Pos Driver Team Gap
1. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:00:26.439
2. Davide Valsecchi Durango +14.378
3. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet +15.540
4. Giedo van der Garde iSport +19.403
5. Vitaly Petrov Campos +27.541
6. Sergio Perez Campos +29.034
7. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS +34.012
8. Sakon Yamamoto ART +36.080
9. Javier Villa Super Nova +52.219
10. Luiz Razia Arden +56.955
11. Renger van der Zande Arden +58.743
12. James Jakes Super Nova +1:02.217
13. Giacomo Ricci DPR +1:02.854
14. Fabrizio Crestani Ocean +1:14.074
15. Michael Herck DPR +1:34.638
16. Alberto Valerio Trident +1 lap
17. Michael Dalle Stelle Durango +1 lap
18. Kevin Nai Chia Chen FMS +1 lap
Retirements
Pastor Maldonado ART 30 laps
Earl Bamber Qi-Meritus 30 laps
Andi Zuber FMS 30 laps
Yelmer Buurman Ocean 15 laps
Diego Nunes Piquet 15 laps
Chris van der Drift Trident 13 laps
Alex Yoong Qi-Meritus 4 laps
Hamad Al-Fardan iSport 3 laps
Fastest Lap, Kobayashi 1:43.079 on lap 25
Share Or Save This Story
Huff wins Goodwood Members’ Meeting Super Touring Shoot-Out
Button takes Goodwood Members’ Meeting win in E-type Jaguar
The top 11 lost F1 victories after the flag
Top five roles on Motorsport Jobs this week
Video: What makes a good F1 driver and race engineer partnership
Formula E launches innovative Gen4 car at Paul Ricard
How to make F1's 2026 rules simpler - and why Horner was half-right
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments