Romain Grosjean wins first GP2 race in Valencia
Romain Grosjean took advantage of misfortune for the two Addax cars to take his second GP2 win of the season on the streets of Valencia
The DAMS driver won from third on the grid without having to pass another car, as both Addax drivers - Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde - were removed from contention for him.
Pole-sitter Pic broke down on his reconnaissance lap to the grid, and his team only just had the car back in the pits and ready to go when the race got underway.
The Frenchman's team-mate van der Garde took up the reins to lead for the first 22 laps, before he had to come in to serve a drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement.
Prior to that, van der Garde had stretched his lead to more than five seconds following the pitstops, although Grosjean had just upped his pace to set the fastest lap of the race before the Dutchman came in.
Van der Garde rejoined fourth, and that quickly became third as he disposed of Racing Engineering's Dani Clos with relative ease. He then spent the remaining laps hunting down Davide Valsecchi's AirAsia car in second.
Valsecchi proved tougher than Clos in defence, and he resisted several attempts from van der Garde as the pair briefly got side-by-side on a handful of occasions. Eventually, the Italian locked his rear wheels at the end of the second long straight, and van der Garde was able to nip through on the exit to complete his recovery to second with just over a lap remaining.
Clos had closed on them during their scrap, but his pace fell away at the end and he had to fight furiously to keep Sam Bird (iSport) and Luiz Razia (AirAsia) at bay in the final few corners.
ART's Esteban Gutierrez recovered from an early race off which dropped him to 11th to get back into the points with seventh place, while Josef Kral grabbed eighth on the penultimate lap as Michael Herck slowed and fell to 10th.
Jules Bianchi's nightmare season continued as he crashed at the first corner after chopping across the front of Marcus Ericsson, sending both into the wall at high speed and bringing out the safety car.
Max Chilton had been on for solid points before his pace dropped off dramatically, forcing him to retire. Another frontrunner to fall by the wayside was Luca Filippi, who tagged the back of Clos as they scrapped over fourth place at half-distance.
Retirements: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Romain Grosjean DAMS 58m19.400s 2. Giedo van der Garde Addax + 15.481s 3. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia + 20.901s 4. Dani Clos Racing Engineering + 24.010s 5. Sam Bird iSport + 24.323s 6. Luiz Razia AirAsia + 24.495s 7. Esteban Gutierrez ART + 48.097s 8. Josef Kral Arden + 51.064s 9. Jolyon Palmer Arden + 53.632s 10. Michael Herck Coloni + 57.032s 11. Julian Leal Rapax + 58.041s 12. Kevin Mirocha Ocean + 58.567s 13. Pal Varhaug DAMS + 1m06.416s 14. Johnny Cecotto Ocean + 1m12.085s 15. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 1m20.090s 16. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova + 1m25.296s 17. Stefano Coletti Trident + 1m44.986s 18. Kevin Ceccon Coloni + 1 lap Retirements: Max Chilton Carlin 23 laps Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 15 laps Luca Filippi Super Nova 14 laps Charles Pic Addax 13 laps Jules Bianchi ART 0 laps Marcus Ericsson iSport 0 laps Alvaro Parente Carlin 0 laps Fabio Leimer Rapax 0 laps
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