Valerio takes first GP2 victory
Alberto Valerio took his first GP2 Series win with a commanding performance in the feature race at Silverstone today
Having qualified a surprise second on the grid yesterday, Valerio (Piquet) was initially beaten off the line by pole-sitter Romain Grosjean.
But the Brazilian kept the Barwa Addax driver within range and the pair spent five laps scrapping over the lead before Valerio caught Grosjean napping at Abbey on lap eight and moved into the lead.
With a clear track ahead Valerio quickly opened a gap, but his cause was helped by the fact that Grosjean was struggling for pace.
Having just lost a place to Valerio he almost immediately found himself under pressure from Lucas di Grassi. That fight was also over quickly, di Grassi muscling his way into second after just a couple of laps.
That should have secured the Racing Engineering driver's claim to the runner-up position, but Nico Hulkenberg had turned in a stunning sequence of laps after choosing to make his compulsory pitstop relatively early, and propelled himself into the fight.
Di Grassi found himself relegated back to third, but as Hulkenberg began to struggle over the final few laps, di Grassi was able to close back in and reclaim second with three laps remaining.
That left Hulkenberg to deal with fellow rookie Sergio Perez (Arden), who had also taken advantage of an early stop to bring himself into contention from the back of the grid, but despite the Mexican's best efforts he was unable to find a way past the ART car, and Hulkenberg held on for the final podium spot.
Perez was fourth ahead of Grosjean, who moves back into the championship lead after team-mate Vitaly Petrov finished down in 15th after being pushed wide onto the grass at the first corner.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Alberto Valerio Piquet 55m32.255s 2. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering + 1.238s 3. Nico Hulkenberg ART + 5.289s 4. Sergio Perez Arden + 5.550s 5. Romain Grosjean Addax + 14.409s 6. Karun Chandhok Ocean + 16.392s 7. Pastor Maldonado ART + 22.184s 8. Andreas Zuber Fisichella + 26.889s 9. Michael Herck DPR + 36.321s 10. Davide Valsecchi Durango + 39.715s 11. Diego Nunes iSport + 40.509s 12. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet + 41.479s 13. Dani Clos Racing Engineering + 45.601s 14. Luca Filippi Super Nova + 46.247s 15. Vitaly Petrov Addax + 46.415s 16. Davide Rigon Trident + 57.096s 17. Giacomo Ricci DPR +1m10.760s 18. Nelson Panciatici Durango +1m16.251s 19. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS +1m19.149s 20. Luiz Razia Fisichella + 1 lap Retirements: Javier Villa Super Nova 30 laps Giedo van der Garde iSport 29 laps Ricardo Teixeira Trident 8 laps Alvaro Parente Ocean 1 lap Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 0 laps Edoardo Mortara Arden 0 laps
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