Frenchman Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix) once again dominated proceedings in the second GP2 Asia race on the final day of the Grand Racing weekend at Dubai Autodrome. Starting eighth on the grid, top eight finishers yesterday were gridded up in reverse order, he capitalised on a strong start which saw him up to fifth within a few laps. By the middle of an incident packed race, which saw the Safety Car deployed in the early stages, he took the lead and went on unchallenged to take his second chequered flag in 24 hours. Grosjean’s “double” is a rare occurrence in the highly competitive arena of GP2 racing and a remarkable achievement considering the quality of the field.Chandhok battles with Yoshimoto

Crowd favourite India’s Karun Chandhok (iSport International) had a bad start from the slippery side of the circuit which allowed Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy (Super Nova) to take the lead into turn one with the Qi-Meritus.Mahara duo of Italian Luca Filippi and Japan’s Hiroki Yoshimoto in close attendance. The pace was fast and furious with five first lap casualties including Swiss Sebastian Buemi (Trust Team Arden), Adrian Valles (Fisichella MSI) and Brazilian Diego Nunes (Campos Team) whose stricken cars were stranded out on track prompting a Safety Car period which served to concertina the field. A leading casualty during the safety car period was Filippi whose car coasted to a halt with a technical failure ending a strong early showing.

When the race returned to green conditions Fauzy still led from Yoshimoto in second place who had  Grosjean looming large in his mirrors. The battle for second place was on and it did not take long for Grosjean to make his move as Yoshimoto was hampered by a back marker leaving the door open for the Frenchman to pounce and start his chase of Fauzy. It did not take long before the leader felt the heat, going wide into the bowl he gave Grosjean the gap which the ART Grand Prix driver seized to take the lead with just over half the race to go which he held on to the end.

Chandhok meanwhile had recovered and started setting some fast laps as he set out to make headway towards the front as he set his sights on a podium finish. He pulled away from the battle between Durango duo Brazil’s Alberto Valerio and Italian Davide Grosjean celebrates againValsecchi, honing in on Yoshimoto and getting by within a few laps. By the end of the race he was reeling in second place Fauzy but there simply were not enough laps in the race and the Indian ace had to be content with third place.

Valerio did all he could to beat Yoshimoto but at the finish the Japanese driver finished fourth with the Italian in his slipstream. Valsecchi did enough to finish sixth fending off Spaniard Andy Soucek (DPR) and Belgian Jerome D’Ambrosio (DAMS). Brazil’s Bruno Senna (iSport International) who finished second a day earlier had a race forget as a puncher ended any chance of a good showing. He finished outside of the points scoring positions.

The weekend belongs to the twenty year old Grosjean who is starting his GP2 Asia career in spectacular form and after the first two Dubai rounds heads the championship table by a healthy 10 points. Last year he was Euroseries Formula 3 champion and GP2 Asia is his natural progression to the pinnacle of the sport. If his performances in Dubai this week, he was the dominant driver in testing this past week, he should be a championship force in both the GP2 Asia and GP2 Europe series.

The next Grand Racing, featuring another two rounds of GP2 Asia, event takes place at Sentul, Indonesia in three weeks time with the final rounds, of the ten round series, taking place at Dubai Autodrome in April.

Driver comments after the race

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 am 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.