Petrov beats Hulkenberg in feature
Vitaly Petrov capitalised on a mistake by pole-sitter Nico Hulkenberg to win today's GP2 Series feature race in Valencia
Hulkenberg initially made a good start but then went wide at Turn 2, allowing Petrov and Sergio Perez to get past. He was able to reclaim second from Perez fairly quickly, but Petrov proved a tougher challenge.
The ART driver's best chance came in the spell immediately after the pitstops when he appeared to have stronger pace, but a couple of brave lunges at the final corner came to nothing.
The gap see-sawed by as much as two seconds over the final half of the race, but Hulkenberg was never able to get quite close enough to have a genuine shot and the Russian crossed the line 0.3 seconds ahead.
Nobody else was close to the pace of the leading duo, with third-placed Sergio Perez more than 15 seconds down the road at the finish, but the Arden rookie still performed well and his first main series podium was a deserved reward.
A string of assorted dramas shuffled the lower points positions late in the race, but fourth-placed Alvaro Parente and fifth-placed Roldan Rodriguez had been in the mix for the entire afternoon.
Edoardo Mortara finished sixth ahead of Luca Filippi, with Pastor Maldonado taking the final point and pole for tomorrow's sprint race.
Among the less fortunate was Davide Valsecchi, who was on target for eighth for most of the race before dropping three places in the last couple of laps.
Lucas di Grassi had run as high as fourth before slowing and retiring with two laps remaining, and Karun Chandhok spent most of the afternoon trying to overtake Valsecchi, only to pull off the track and out of the race just moments after he'd finally done so.
It was also a difficult day for series newcomer Stefano Coletti, who endured a drive-through penalty for jumping the start and another for crossing the white line at the pit exit before retiring at mid-distance.
Also feeling the wrath of the stewards was Hungary sprint race winner Giedo van der Garde (jumping the start), Franck Perera (push start) and Davide Rigon (speeding in pitlane).
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Addax Team 56:24.157 2. Nico Hulkenberg ART Grand Prix + 0.396 3. Sergio Perez Telmex Arden International + 16.004 4. Alvaro Parente Ocean Racing Technology + 22.922 5. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP + 26.891 6. Edoardo Mortara Telmex Arden International + 38.444 7. Luca Filippi Super Nova Racing + 44.153 8. Pastor Maldonado ART Grand Prix + 52.496 9. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 59.464 10. J.D'Ambrosio DAMS + 59.959 11. Davide Valsecchi Barwa Addax Team + 1'05.003 12. Diego Nunes iSport International + 1'07.196 13. Davide Rigon Trident Racing + 1'07.612 14. Michael Herck DPR + 1'14.817 15. G.van der Garde iSport International + 1'16.354 16. Franck Perera DPR + 1'17.358 17. Andreas Zuber Scuderia Coloni + 1'19.836 18. Alberto Valério Piquet GP + 1'44.040 19. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing + 1 Lap 20. Lucas Di Grassi Racing Engineering + 3 Laps Retirements: Driver Team Laps Karun Chandhok Ocean Racing Technology 26 Stefano Coletti Durango 16 Luiz Razia Scuderia Coloni 3 N.Panciatici Durango 3 Ricardo Teixeira Trident Racing 2 Daniel Clos Racing Engineering 0 Fastest lap: Hulkenberg, 1:47.041 on lap 18
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