11/04/2008
NEWS STORY
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The ART Grand Prix ace, Romain Grosjean, scored another victory after a pit-stop mix-up for Bruno Senna at Dubai Autodrome today. Consequently, the battle for 2nd and 3rd place in the championship is now focused on Petrov and Buemi.
Bruno Senna had been dominant from the first lap, when the Brazilian, who started from the front row, made a great move on race leader Grosjean after the latter made a mistake in the first hairpin.
Senna easily pulled away while the newly crowned champion was overtaken by the two Trust Team Arden cars, Buurman and then Buemi, who had just made a terrific start.
The fight between the three men intensified with the Swiss driver overtaking his teammate and Grosjean also passing the Dutchman. Meanwhile, Vitaly Petrov, who had started 7th on the grid, was up to 5th.
When Buemi pitted, Grosjean tried to catch the race leader, but the Brazilian had already managed to pull out a comfortable gap, enough for him to pit and get back on track in front of his rivals. Unfortunately, the team had changed only one rear tyre while the sporting regulations require that at least two tyres be changed on the car during the mandatory pit stop. Therefore, Senna pitted again on lap 29 to change the second tyre, and not only lost the race but was subsequently excluded from it.
This left Grosjean and Buemi to fight it out for the win, with the Frenchman eventually overtaking the Swiss on lap 26.
With Yelmer Buurman finishing 3rd, Trust Team Arden had their two drivers on the podium. Vitaly Petrov finished 4th, while, with a great move on Bonanomi on the last lap, Yoshimoto took 5th. Jérôme d'Ambrosio finished 7th.
Milos Pavlovic, who crossed the finish line in 8th place, will start on pole position on the reversed grid tomorrow.