Valsecchi sails to victory
DAMS driver Davide Valsecchi dominated proceedings in Bahrain to claim a comfortable victory in the GP2 feature race.
Last Updated: 21/04/12 5:52pm
DAMS driver Davide Valsecchi dominated proceedings in Bahrain to claim a comfortable victory in the GP2 feature race on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Italian led virtually from start to finish, despite a safety car period around the midway point, to finish 7.7 seconds ahead of Luiz Razia, with Esteban Gutierrez in third.
British driver Max Chilton was on course to finish on the podium but had third place snatched away from him on the last lap by Gutierrez.
At the start of the race, Valsecchi made the perfect start from pole position and quickly began to build up a gap that none of his rivals behind him were able to reduce.
Razia started to move through the field from eighth on the grid, breaking into the top-four when he passed Felipe Nasr at Turn One.
Control
Valsecchi briefly relinquished the lead to Fabio Leimer when he pitted on lap 13, but the Italian was soon back in control at the head of the field.
Nathanael Berthon was now sitting behind Valsecchi as he had yet to make his mandatory stop and was soon swallowed up by the chasing pack behind him, with Britain's James Calado moving up into second.
Meanwhile, Nasr and Johnny Cecotto collided while fighting for sixth, leaving both cars stranded on the track, meaning the safety car had to come out.
Valsecchi's lead of 11.4s was reduced to nothing but at the restart he quickly pulled back away from Calado, who began to struggle with his tyres and was passed by Brazil's Razia.
Chilton and Gutierrez also overtook Calado and started a fight of their own for third, with the Mexican eventually prevailing when he pulled off a gutsy move on the last lap.
At the chequered flag, Calado completed the top five behind Chilton, while Tom Dillmann fought his way through from 15th on the grid to claim his first GP2 points in fifth.
