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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

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