Maldonado wins shortened sprint
Pastor Maldonado won a shortened reversed-grid GP2 race in Monaco today following a spectacular crash involving championship leader Romain Grosjean
The race was red-flagged two laps before full distance due to the damage sustained by the barriers at Tabac in the accident, which was triggered when the Frenchman attempted a move on Andi Zuber.
But he only succeeded in tripping over the FMSI car's rear wheel, launching him skywards and onto the top of the wall.
DAMS driver Jerome D'Ambrosio was second ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, the ART rookie picking up the first GP2 main series podium of his career.
While Maldonado took the final honours the majority of the race was actually led by Ocean's Karun Chandhok, but the Indian's afternoon came to an end when he pulled off the circuit with a suspected broken driveshaft.
The misfortunes of both the race leader and the points leader were the only real noteworthy moments in an otherwise processional race, although Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi will be relieved to have got some points on the board for fourth place after a difficult start to the season.
Zuber held on for fifth, with Grosjean's Barwa Addax team-mate Vitaly Petrov rounding out the top six.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Maldonado ART Grand Prix 39:02.772 2. D'Ambrosio DAMS + 1.505 3. Hulkenberg ART Grand Prix + 3.545 4. Di Grassi Fat Burner Racing + 4.480 5. Zuber FMSI + 6.494 6. Petrov Barwa Addax Team + 9.349 7. Rigon Trident Racing + 10.448 8. Villa Super Nova Racing + 53.234 9. Perez Telmex Arden International + 56.237 10. Razia FMSI + 57.770 11. Van Der Garde iSport International + 58.582 12. Kobayashi DAMS + 59.696 13. Mortara Telmex Arden International + 63.710 14. Nunes iSport International + 64.840 15. Panciatici Durango + 67.681 16. Herck DPR + 1 lap 17. Grosjean Barwa Addax Team + 2 laps 18. Valsecchi Durango + 2 laps Retirements:
Driver Team On lap Clos Fat Burner Racing Engineering 23 Valerio Piquet GP 23 Filippi Super Nova Racing 23 Chandhok Ocean Racing Technology 21 Ricci DPR 18 Parente Ocean Racing Technology 15 Rodriguez Piquet GP 2 Fastest lap: Petrov, 1:22.045 on lap 9
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| Series | FIA F2 |
| Author | Mark Glendenning |
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