26/01/2008
NEWS STORY
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After his maiden win yesterday, Romain Grosjean snatched his second victory in an action-packed sprint race in Dubai.
Starting from eighth on the reversed grid, the ART driver made an excellent start and managed to emerge in 5th place from the first corner. While Karun Chandhok dropped from second to seventh due to a clutch problem, Adrian Valles also made a great start and briefly passed leader Fauzy in the first corner, but then suffered a mechanical problem and had to retire.
The safety car came out on Lap 2 after Buemi and Puglisi touched and the Swiss driver had to stop. On Lap 4, Luca Filippi - then running 2nd - was also forced to retire due to a gear box problem. Grosjean was now running 4th. He had a wonderful restart and passed Chandhok at Turn 1. He then overtook Yoshimoto who was pushed wide by backmarker Schleghelmilch. The Renault test driver rapidly caught race leader Fauzy and passed him to finally cross the finish line as a winner for the second time in less than 24 hours. Karun Chandhok finished third.
Starting from the last row, Vitaly Petrov made a strong performance at the wheel of his Campos car and finished 9th. Bruno Senna was almost getting back into the points when he had to go pit due to a puncture he picked up while fighting with Valsecchi. Both Durango drivers scored points today.
This is the first time that a rookie has grabbed victory twice in the opening of a GP2 Championship season. Furthermore, the last rookie to win both races in the same event was Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone in 2006.
Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix): I wasn't really going for the win, but I was hoping for a podium. I knew I had the pace to do it. At the restart, I was P4 and I passed Yoshimoto. That's when I realize that I could go for the win. I honestly didn't think I could achieve such a good result here. However, it doesn't mean anything: I'm still learning and I will now concentrate on Indonesia.
Fairuz Fauzy (Super Nova Racing): I had a good start and got passed by Valles briefly. I led for most of the race until I was struggling with oversteer. I saw Romain catching up quickly and he passed me. I think that this is still a good result and I am now looking forward to Indonesia.
Karun Chandhok (iSport International): I had a clutch problem at the start and that's how I dropped from second to seventh. It's a real shame and we have to analyse exactly what happened. We had a real good pace here and we could have hoped for a better result. In Indonesia, we should also be competitive and fight for the win.