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Romain Grosjean – Take Two PDF Print E-mail
Saturday, 26 January 2008
After his maiden win yesterday, Romain Grosjean snatched his second victory in an action-packed sprint race in Dubai.
Starting eighth on the reversed grid, the ART driver made an excellent start and managed to come out 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 from mechanical problems and had to retire. The safety car came out on Lap 2 after Buemi and Puglisi touched and the Swiss had to stop. On Lap 4, Luca Filippi - then 2nd - was also forced to retire due to a gear box problem. Grosjean was hence 4th. He had a wonderful restart and passed Chandhok at Turn 1. He then overtook Yoshimoto who was pushed wide by backmarker Schleghelmilch. The RDD boy 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 o  his Campos car and finished 9th. Bruno Senna was almost getting back into the points when he had to go back to the pit because of a puncture he picked up while fighting with Valsecchi. The two Durango boys scored points today.

It is the first time that a rookie grabs victory twice in the opening of a GP2 Championship. Last rookie to win the two races in the same event was Lewis Hamilton in Silverstone, 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.”

Dubai – Race Result
      Driver                          Team
1. Romain Grosjean            ART Grand Prix
2. Fairuz Fauzy                   Super Nova Racing
3. Karun Chandhok             iSport International
4. Hiroki Yoshimoto             Qi- Meritus Mahara
5. Alberto Valerio                Durango
6. Davide Valsecchi             Durango
7. Andy Soucek                  DPR
8. Jerome d’Ambrosio         Dams
9. Vitaly Petrov                  Barwa International Campos
10. Ho-Pin Tung                 Trident Racing
11. Christian Bakkerud       Super Nova Racing
12. Stephen Jelley              ART Grand Prix
13. Marco Bonanomi           Piquet Sports
14. Milos Pavlovic               BCN Competicion
15. Adam Khan                  Trust Team Arden
16. Jason Tahinci                BCN Competicion
17. Michael Herck               FMS International
18. Harald Schleghelmilch   Trident Racing
19. Bruno Senna                 iSport International
Not Classified
Armaan Ebrahim – DPR
Luca Filippi – Qi-Meritus Mahara
Adrian Valles – FMS International
Kamui Kobayashi – Dams
Marcello Puglisi – Piquet Sports
Sébastien Buemi – Trust Team Arden
Diego Nunes – Barwa International Campos Team

Fastest lap time: Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix) – 1:22.453 on lap 23

Team Championship
Team Points
1. ART Grand Prix 19
2. iSport International 15
3. Qi- Meritus Mahara 10
4. Super Nova Racing 6
5. DPR 6
6. FMS International 5
7. Durango 3
8. Dams --
9. Barwa International Campos --
10. BCN Competicion --
11. Trident Racing --
12. Piquet Sports --
13. Trust Team Arden --
 
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