23/01/2009
NEWS STORY
 |
Kamui Kobayashi gave another convincing display today as he stormed from fourth to second at the start before putting pressure on race leader Hülkenberg and subsequently overtaking him in a superb manoeuvre. The Japanese driver crossed the finish line in first position for the second time this season, 5.8 seconds ahead of his Dams teammate Jérôme d'Ambrosio.
Thursday's sensation Nico Hülkenberg made a good start from pole position and led the race in the early laps, but the ART rookie had to cope with Kobayashi's pressure as the Toyota F1 test driver stayed glued to the German's rear wing. The German youngster contained Kobayashi as long as he could, locking his wheels on several occasions, but eventually, he had to relinquish the lead when the Dams driver overtook him at the end of the straight line on Lap 13.
Four laps later, the ART driver was the first of the race leaders to make his mandatory pitstop, but he lost time due to a problem while changing his right rear tyre. This unfortunate incident pushed him back in fourth place, and promoted Dams' d'Ambrosio and Arden's Mortara to second and third.
Even though the Belgian struggled at the start of the race, he fought his way back from fourth, overtaking a competitive Mortara before coming into the pits. With the two Dams leading the race quite comfortably, the Italian had to keep an eye on his rear mirror as Hülkenberg tried to fight his way back into a podium position, but to no avail, for Mortara secured his first GP2 podium.
Behind them, Davide Valsecchi and Sergio Perez animated the rest of the pack: the Durango driver worked his way from tenth to fifth - overtaking his closest rival, Piquet's Rodriguez, on lap 30, and the Campos ace subsequently recovering from a disappointing 13th place to 8th, which means the young Mexican will start from pole tomorrow. Giedo Van der Garde (GFH iSport) will join him on the front row.
Kamui Kobayashi crossed the finish line almost 6 seconds ahead of his teammate. The Japanese youngster once again posted the fastest lap (1:43.604), thereby adding an extra point to his ten-points for the win. He has now extended his lead to 11 points over Rodriguez. Davide Valsecchi remains third, only three points behind the Piquet driver. Jérôme d'Ambrosio is now fourth in the driver's championship.