01/11/2009
NEWS STORY
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German ace Christian Vietoris led from the start to the chequered flag in today's sprint race at the Yas Marina Circuit after getting away perfectly from third on the grid. Yesterday's race winner Davide Valsecchi charged from eighth to second.
Pole-man Oliver Turvey had a poor start that saw him fall to fourth place with Vietoris, Josef Kral (Super Nova) and Alexander Rossi (Ocean Racing) passing him into the first corner. Turvey's front row 'partner' Johnny Cecotto (Trident) had an even worse start, falling to seventh behind feature race heroes Luca Filippi and Davide Valsecchi. But the iSport racer was on a mission: all over Filippi in the early stages, he eventually got past his countryman on Lap 13 at Turn 11. The Meritus man then braked way too late into the hairpin to try and retaliate, but went too wide, span losing positions to Cecotto and DAMS' Edoardo Piscopo.
Valsecchi set his sights on teammate Turvey and quickly overtook him for fourth place. The safety car was then deployed when William Bratt collided with Fabio Leimer at the end of the back straight. By this time, Vietoris and Kral were comfortably leading, but they saw Rossi and Valsecchi rejoin them behind the safety car. At the restart, Vietoris easily stayed in control while Valsecchi got past Rossi again at Turn 11 on Lap 18. He then rapidly closed in on the two leaders.
Super Nova's Kral tried to resist Valsecchi's repeated assaults but eventually had to give in on the very last lap at Turn 11, where the Italian had tricked all his previous victims. At the chequered flag, Vietoris claimed his first win on his GP2 debut with Valsecchi and Kral completing the podium.
Behind them, Turvey managed to pass a slower Rossi to take fourth. Cecotto finished sixth and took the last point.