Di Grassi completes Campos double

Lucas di Grassi made it a double success for the Campos team at Valencia on Sunday, matching his teammate Vitaly Petrov's success from yesterday with victory in the Sunday morning sprint race.

Di Grassi inherited the win when longtime leader Luca Filippi punted off Romain Grosjean at Turn 2, who had just passed him for the lead at the final corner on the lap before.

Grosjean was forced out after being shoved into the tyrewall, and was livid with the Italian's driving.

Filippi had led for the first nine laps, but despite his collision with Grosjean, clung on to second to the finish under pressure from third-placed Jerome d'Ambrosio. But it was in vain because the stewards slapped him with a 25-second penalty, which dropped him to 13th place.

Di Grassi, meanwhile, nipped ahead while Filippi was hitting Grosjean, and took the lead that he would hold to the end, despite a brief safety car period.

It was a hugely significant race for the title battle, as Bruno Senna looked set to eat into Giorgio Pantano's series lead. But after getting up to fourth from ninth on the grid, Senna shunted his iSport car into the wall.

It was a race he could have finished second in, and he rued afterwards: "I've let the team down."

The main beneficiaries were d'Ambrosio and Pantano, who finished third and fourth, with Diego Nunes scoring his first points of the year in fifth, ahead of Javier Villa.

Yesterday's winner Petrov had a ragged race, straightlining a chicane on the opening lap and ultimately getting punted into a spin by Karun Chandhok.

Pantano gained another three points over Senna today, taking his points tally to 70 to Senna's 58.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 43:01.131 2. D'Ambrosio Dams + 6.456 3. Pantano Racing Engineering + 7.545 4. Nunes DPR + 12.039 5. Villa Racing Engineering + 12.674 6. Kobayashi Dams + 13.201 7. Valsecchi Durango + 15.394 8. Conway Trident Racing + 17.496 9. Tung Trident Racing + 20.072 10. Rodriguez FMS International + 22.960 11. Iaconelli BCN Competicion + 24.716 12. Valerio Durango + 25.933 13. Filippi Trust Team Arden + 29.213 14. Herck DPR + 1 Lap 15. Petrov Barwa Campos Team + 1 lap Retirements: Driver Team Laps Chandhok iSport International 18 Asmer FMS International 12 Grosjean ART Grand Prix 11 Soucek Super Nova Racing 7 Senna iSport International 7 Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 4 Valles BCN Competicion 3 Buemi Trust Team Arden 3 Maldonado Piquet Sports 2 Parente Super Nova Racing 0 Zuber Piquet Sports 0 Fastest lap: Di Grassi, 1:47.712 on lap 18

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Petrov inherits victory in Valencia

Vitaly Petrov won Saturday's GP2 Series feature race in bizarre circumstances at Valencia when series leader Giorgio Pantano, who dominated the event, ran out of fuel in the final corners of the race.

Amazingly, title rival Bruno Senna also ran out of gas and coasted over the finish line in ninth place - just missing out on reverse grid pole for Sunday's sprint.

Before the race, teams acknowledged that the new Valancia street track was high on fuel consumption, and most cars completed the bare minimum of installation laps and were topped up with fuel on the grid, but they believed the situation would be offset by multiple safety cars.

However, only one safety car was required, when Ho-Pin Tung and Kamui Kobayashi hit the wall exiting Turn 2 on the opening lap, and it was only on track for a lap.

Pantano had led from the start of the 34-lap event but his Racing Engineering machine began to splutter as it approached the hairpin on the final lap. Petrov jumped ahead of him, and just beat Pastor Maldonado to the finish line by less than a second.

Romain Grosjean finished third, four seconds back, while Lucas di Grassi had a huge fright when he came across coasting cars in the flat-out final sequence of bends, but bounced across the kerbs to miss them and jumped up to fourth as a result.

The points finishers were completed by Jerome d'Ambrosio, Sebastien Buemi, Andy Soucek and Luca Filippi. Senna coasted across the line ninth, while Pantano could only make it to the final corner, where he stopped.

Others to run out of fuel included Karun Chandhok and Carlos Iaconalli.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1h03:25.719 2. Maldonado Piquet Sports + 0.868 3. Grosjean ART Grand Prix + 4.447 4. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team + 28.038 5. D'ambrosio Dams + 28.736 6. Buemi Trust Team Arden + 28.855 7. Soucek Super Nova Racing + 36.960 8. Filippi Trust Team Arden + 45.390 9. Senna iSport International + 48.177 10. Nunes DPR + 56.935 11. Valles BCN Competicion + 59.149 12. Herck DPR + 63.604 13. Iaconelli BCN Competicion + 72.716 14. Pantano Racing Engineering + 1 lap 15. Chandhok iSport International + 1 lap 16. Parente Super Nova Racing + 2 laps Retirements: Driver Team Laps Valsecchi Durango 29 Zuber Piquet Sports 24 Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 9 Conway Trident Racing 1 Villa Racing Engineering 0 Rodriguez FMS International 0 Tung Trident Racing 0 Valerio Durango 0 Kobayashi Dams 0 Asmer FMS International 0 Fastest lap: Pantano, 1:46.791 on lap 33

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Di Grassi completes Campos double

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Senna hits trouble as Pantano flies

Bruno Senna faces an uphill battle to close the seven-point gap to GP2 Series points leader Giorgio Pantano after suffering a throttle problem during free practice in Valencia that rendered him 18th fastest, 1.8s behind the Italian.

With just 30 minutes to learn the new Spanish street circuit, Senna was waiting in a line of cars ready to go on-track when he was pushed to the side and lost 10 minutes while his iSport team went to work on the problem.

"The throttle would not go back to zero percent," said Senna. "I lost the whole part of the session when everyone was being sensible.

"When I got going there were red and yellow flags everywhere."

The session was stopped halfway through when Carlos Iachonelli hit the wall exiting one of the chicanes, while Pastor Maldonado also damaged the left rear of his car in a separate incident with the barriers.

Pantano ended the session fastest, 0.5s clear of the field, with Alvaro Parente and Karun Chandhok next up.

Once Senna did get going, he was not convinced his car was propelling him at full potential - another reason for his lowly position in the times.

"I'm not sure I had full throttle because people were pulling away on the straights in front of me," he said.

"Things have started really well, I'm only two seconds slower than Giorgio."

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pantano Racing Engineering 1:47.340 13 2. Parente Super Nova Racing 1:47.867 + 0.527 14 3. Chandhok iSport International 1:47.898 + 0.558 13 4. Zuber Piquet Sports 1:47.922 + 0.582 14 5. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 1:47.933 + 0.593 15 6. Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:47.944 + 0.604 11 7. D'Ambrosio Dams 1:47.948 + 0.608 14 8. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:47.992 + 0.652 15 9. Filippi Trust Team Arden 1:48.362 + 1.022 13 10. Valsecchi Durango 1:48.381 + 1.041 13 11. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1:48.477 + 1.137 13 12. Rodriguez FMS International 1:48.499 + 1.159 15 13. Valles BCN Competicion 1:48.684 + 1.344 15 14. Villa Racing Engineering 1:48.722 + 1.382 13 15. Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:48.753 + 1.413 14 16. Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:48.893 + 1.553 13 17. Conway Trident Racing 1:49.060 + 1.720 14 18. Senna iSport International 1:49.232 + 1.892 11 19. Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:49.459 + 2.119 14 20. Kobayashi Dams 1:49.504 + 2.164 15 21. Valerio Durango 1:49.988 + 2.648 15 22. Herck DPR 1:50.190 + 2.850 15 23. Tung Trident Racing 1:50.297 + 2.957 15 24. Nunes DPR 1:50.326 + 2.986 13 25. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:50.623 + 3.283 6 26. Asmer FMS International 1:50.908 + 3.568 15

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Pantano takes pole at Valencia

Giorgio Pantano took a step closer to the GP2 Series title in qualifying at Valencia, increasing his series lead by two points by taking pole position.

The Racing Engineering star lapped the new European Grand Prix venue in 1:45.640, grabbing the top spot away from renowned street circuit expert Pastor Maldonado in the dying seconds of the session.

It was a thrilling duel for pole because the circuit gave up more and more grip as the session unfolded. Pantano set the early pace with a 1:46.228, but Romain Grosjean topped that with a 1:46.010 with seven minutes remaining.

Pantano took it back with a 1:45.757, only for Maldonado to hit the top spot with a 1:45.711 with just 90 seconds remaining on the clock. But Pantano wasn't to be denied his two points and with 45 seconds to go he unleashed his 1:45.640, which nobody was able to beat.

Maldonado will start second for Piquet Sports, not a bad effort considering he crashed in free practice, ahead of Campos driver Vitaly Petrov. Grosjean (ART) slipped to fourth, not helped when Adrian Valles ruined his last lap quite comprehensively, while Andi Zuber could only manage fifth in the second Piquet-run car.

Jerome d'Ambrosio will start sixth for DAMS, ahead of Sebastien Buemi (Arden), Bruno Senna (iSport), Mike Conway (Trident) and Luca Filippi (Arden).

Senna also had one of his best laps ruined by Valles, and will have a lot of work to do from seven places behind the man he needs to topple if he's to win the title. He has now slipped nine points behind Pantano in the title race.

His teammate Karun Chandhok, who was third in free practice, could only recover to 12th position after a spin at Turn Five. That treacherous corner also claimed Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS), who smote the wall and removed two corners from his car. He was unhurt, but the session had to be stopped while his car was removed.

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Di Grassi wins Hungary feature

Lucas di Grassi held off a sustained challenge from Andi Zuber to win Saturday's tense GP2 Series feature race at the Hungaroring.

Since returning to the GP2 Series mid-season, last year's runner-up di Grassi has finished second on three occasions, but finally went one step higher after a tremendous start from third on the grid took him into a first corner braking battle with front row starter Zuber.

Zuber looked to have the lead, but missed the apex and slid wide, allowing di Grassi to nip past him. Di Grassi's Campos team-mate, Vitaly Petrov, then shoved Zuber towards the grass on the run to Turn 2, where he grabbed second position. Petrov gave the place back, however, by running wide at Turn 2 on lap four.

Di Grassi had a healthy two-second lead when Zuber pitted for his mandatory stop on lap 14. Di Grassi had to respond by pitting a lap later, which was a good thing as Zuber had produced a stunning out lap and was right on his tail after he did so.

The pair remained closely matched thereafter, with Zuber only dropping back to a maximum of 1.4 seconds behind when he ran wide at Turn 4 on lap 23. At the flag, they were separated by just 0.7 seconds.

The big news was the championship fight taking an intriguing twist. Series leader Giorgio Pantano was punted into a spin on the opening lap by Romain Grosjean, who understeered wide at Turn 4 and hit Pantano, who appeared to be driving around the outside of him quite cleanly, at the following corner.

With Pantano finishing out of the points, Bruno Senna took a bite out of his championship lead with third place. Senna was lucky that Petrov retired with gearbox failure on lap 23 when running ahead of him, but could look back on a brilliant start that catapulted him from eighth to fourth on the opening lap.

Karun Chandhok finished fourth, ahead of the star of the race: Pastor Maldonado. After missing qualifying due to a big crash in free practice, the Venezuelan stormed from the back of the grid and, by delaying his pitstop, led the race for 20 laps. He rejoined fifth, where he would finish, but ran out of laps to catch Chandhok despite lapping much faster on fresh rubber.

Mike Conway drove a strong race to finish sixth, holding off a charging Sebastien Buemi. Andy Soucek finished eighth for reverse grid pole, after putting up a stern defence to Jerome d'Ambrosio.

Classified: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Di Grassi Campos 1:04:35.028 2. Zuber Piquet Sports + 0.711 3. Senna iSport + 3.611 4. Chandhok iSport + 19.046 5. Maldonado Piquet Sports + 21.883 6. Conway Trident + 33.375 7. Buemi Arden + 33.621 8. Soucek Super Nova + 36.911 9. d'Ambrosio Dams + 37.211 10. Yamamoto ART + 48.359 11. Kobayashi Dams + 49.634 12. Nunes DPR + 56.490 13. Villa Racing Engineering + 57.463 14. Pantano Racing Engineering + 1:01.492 15. Filippi Arden + 1:11.941 16. Parente Super Nova + 1:29.672 17. Grosjean ART + 1 Lap 18. Asmer FMS + 1 Lap 19. Rodriguez FMS + 1 Lap Not classified: Driver Team On lap Petrov Campos 23 Herck DPR 13 Valsecchi Durango 7 Tung Trident 1 Valles BCN Competicion 1 Iaconelli BCN Competicion 0 Valerio Durango 0 Fastest lap: Grosjean, 1:29.793 on lap 17

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Buemi takes Hungaroring sprint win

Sebastien Buemi scored his second GP2 Series sprint race victory of the season for Trust Team Arden at the Hungaroring this morning.

The Swiss driver had looked destined to play second fiddle to Super Nova's Andy Soucek, who made a strong start from pole and led by about a second for the first 12 laps. But then he locked up and understeered off at a right-hander, which gifted Buemi the victory.

Buemi always looked to have more pace than Soucek, and demonstrated this by pulling away to a 7.9-second win. Soucek clung on to second, and was given some respite when third-placed Pastor Maldonado's Piquet Sports car broke down just as he was getting on terms with him.

That allowed Bruno Senna a late run on Soucek in the closing stages, and he crossed the line just fractions of a second behind. More importantly, Senna outscored series leader Giorgio Pantano by a further two points, to close the gap between them in the title race to seven points with three rounds remaining.

Pantano finished fifth, well behind Sakon Yamamoto (ART) but just ahead of Racing Engineering teammate Javier Villa.

Yesterday's winner Lucas di Grassi should have made it a double podium but punted Mike Conway into a spin at Turn 1 early on, earning himself a drivethrough penalty. He recovered to finish 10th, ironically passing Conway cleanly to do so with a couple of laps to go.

From the back of the grid, following his 10-place penalty yesterday for hitting Pantano, Romain Grosjean finished 12th. He did, however, punt Alvaro Parente into a spin at Turn 2, which could lead to a grid penalty for the next event.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 42:39.084 2. Andy Soucek Super Nova Racing + 7.978 3. Bruno Senna iSport International + 8.066 4. Sakon Yamamoto ART Grand Prix + 14.075 5. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering + 15.766 6. Javier Villa Racing Engineering + 16.341 7. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports + 18.533 8. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 19.162 9. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Campos Team + 19.718 10. Lucas Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team + 30.14 11. Mike Conway Trident Racing + 30.647 12. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix + 31.225 13. Davide Valsecchi Durango + 35.646 14. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing + 51.478 15. Diego Nunes DPR + 53.405 16. Michael Herck DPR +1:00.993 17. Alberto Valerio Durango +1:04.537 18. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports + 3 laps 19. Adrian Valles BCN Competicion + 3 laps Retirements:Driver Team Laps Luca Filippi Trust Team Arden 23 Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 21 Marko Asmer FMS International 12 Roldan Rodriguez FMS International 8 Carlos Iaconelli BCN Competicion 6 Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 5 Karun Chandhok iSport International 0

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Zuber quickest in Hungary practice

In an up and down GP2 free practice session for Piquet Sports, Andi Zuber set the fastest time on Friday afternoon but teammate Pastor Maldonado crashed heavily.

Zuber lapped the Hungaroring in 1:28.797, just 0.023 seconds faster than series leader Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering). Lucas di Grassi was third fastest for Campos, and he was closely followed by Romain Grosjean (ART) and Karun Chandhok (iSport).

Vitaly Petrov made it two Campos cars in the top six, ahead of Javier Villa (Racing Engineering), Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS) and Sebastien Buemi (Arden).

With 10 minutes of the session to go, Maldonado had his big shunt, understeering into tyre wall. He appeared to turn in too sharply to a fast left-hander, caught the initial slide but simply skipped across the gravel trap and thumped the wall hard.

The impact removed both the front and rear right-side wheels, and the chances of his team repairing the damage in time for qualifying in three and a half hours looks remote. He was tenth quickest in the session.

Besides that shunt, the session was relatively quiet. Marco Asmer had a quick spin early on, while Grosjean, di Grassi, Villa and Petrov all ran wide but continued.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Zuber Piquet Sports 1:28.797 14 2. Pantano Racing Engineering 1:28.820 + 0.023 14 3. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 1:28.913 + 0.116 16 4. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:28.941 + 0.144 14 5. Chandhok iSport International 1:28.983 + 0.186 15 6. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1:29.030 + 0.233 16 7. Villa Racing Engineering 1:29.112 + 0.315 14 8. D'ambrosio Dams 1:29.327 + 0.530 14 9. Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:29.343 + 0.546 16 10. Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:29.398 + 0.601 9 11. Senna iSport International 1:29.495 + 0.698 16 12. Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:29.496 + 0.699 16 13. Conway Trident Racing 1:29.533 + 0.736 16 14. Parente Super Nova Racing 1:29.587 + 0.790 16 15. Nunes DPR 1:29.744 + 0.947 16 16. Valles BCN Competicion 1:29.880 + 1.083 18 17. Tung Trident Racing 1:30.129 + 1.332 16 18. Valsecchi Durango 1:30.197 + 1.400 16 19. Filippi Trust Team Arden 1:30.223 + 1.426 15 20. Valerio Durango 1:30.334 + 1.537 17 21. Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:30.470 + 1.673 15 22. Kobayashi Dams 1:30.516 + 1.719 12 23. Rodriguez FMS International 1:30.676 + 1.879 15 24. Herck DPR 1:31.213 + 2.416 17 25. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:31.755 + 2.958 18 26. Asmer FMS International 1:31.988 + 3.191 14

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Three injured in DPR bus smash

Three mechanics from GP2 Series squad DPR were hospitalised in Budapest on Saturday morning when the minibus in which they were travelling to the Hungaroring rolled into a ditch on the motorway.

None of the three crew members have been seriously hurt, but they will all be kept in overnight for observation. Their minibus appears to have been sideswiped by a local car as it changed lanes, causing it to swerve off the road and into the ditch, where it rolled to a halt.

The accident has caused traffic chaos on the main road to the circuit, which was totally closed off to allow a helicopter to land. None of the injured required airlifting, and all journeyed to the hospital in an ambulance.

DPR will race on in today's feature event, but will have to shuffle its pit crew around to make up for the loss in numbers.

Team principal Dave Price could even be drafted in for the tyre stops of Diego Nunes, who starts a respectable 13th, and Michael Herck.

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Grosjean grabs first pole in Hungary

Asia Series champion Romain Grosjean scored the first pole position of his main GP2 Series career at the Hungaroring on Friday afternoon, just beating Andi Zuber and Lucas di Grassi by fractions of a second in a thrilling session.

Grosjean lapped his ART Grand Prix car in 1:27.762, which was 0.082 seconds quicker than Zuber's Piquet Sports car, and Zuber was just 0.002 seconds faster than di Grassi's Campos-run machine.

The Frenchman timed his run perfectly, setting the time with less than 60 seconds on the clock. He had a scare early on as he encountered a slow BCN car on the exit of the flat-out Turn 3, and had to pass it on the grass.

Vitaly Petrov (Campos) left it even later and set his time after the clock had zeroed, so the Russian will start fourth.

Karun Chandhok (iSport), who had spent much of the session second, fell to fifth in the closing moments. He was powerless to respond to the late improvements as he spun off overtaking the touring Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS) and stalled.

Mike Conway will start sixth for Trident Racing, ahead of championship protagonists Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) and Bruno Senna (iSport) - the latter almost half a second off the leading pace just when he needs to eat into Pantano's convincing points lead.

Senna had been P2 at the halfway point, but didn't improve his time enough to stay with the leaders.

Pastor Maldonado's Piquet Sports car was unable to be repaired in time for qualifying after his free practice shunt, so he will start Saturday's race from the back of the grid.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Romain Grosjean ART 1:27.782 2. Andi Zuber Piquet Sports 1:27.864 +0.082 3. Lucas di Grassi Campos 1:27.866 +0.084 4. Vitaly Petrov Campos 1:28.035 +0.253 5. Karun Chandhok iSport 1:28.062 +0.280 6. Mike Conway Trident 1:28.123 +0.341 7. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 1:28.203 +0.421 8. Bruno Senna iSport 1:28.237 +0.455 9. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1:28.413 +0.631 10. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1:28.513 +0.731 11. Sebastien Buemi Arden 1:28.562 +0.780 12. Sakon Yamamoto ART 1:28.730 +0.948 13. Andy Soucek Super Nova 1:28.750 +0.968 14. Diego Nunes DPR 1:28.756 +0.974 15. Alvaro Parente Super Nova 1:28.921 +1.139 16. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1:28.926 +1.144 17. Ho-Pin Tung Trident 1:29.010 +1.228 18. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:29.094 +1.312 19. Adrian Valles BCN 1:29.188 +1.406 20. Roldan Rodriguez FMS 1:29.458 +1.676 21. Luca Filippi Arden 1:29.876 +2.094 22. Michael Herck DPR 1:30.021 +2.239 23. Carlos Iaconelli BCN 1:30.220 +2.438 24. Marko Asmer FMS 1:30.258 +2.476 25. Alberto Valerio Durango no time 26. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports no time

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