Kobayashi inherits Bahrain pole

GP2 Asia championship leader Kamui Kobayashi took a step closer to securing the title by taking pole position for the first race of this weekend's finale in Bahrain.

The Japanese driver only set the second quickest time in the qualifying session, behind his DAMS team-mate Jerome D'Ambrosio, but will start from the front because D'Ambrosio has to serve a 10-place grid penalty from his black flag in the last race in Malaysia.

D'Ambrosio's penalty not only gives Kobayashi pole, but also the two points that come with it, edging him closer to claiming the series crown.

Piquet GP's drivers repeated their front-running form from the day's earlier practice session and Roldan Rodriguez and Diego Nunes will start tomorrow's first race from second and third.

Pastor Maldonado (ART), Luiz Razia (Arden) and Giedo van der Garde (iSport) complete the first three rows of the grid.

Vitaly Petrov's already slim title chances were all but erased when, after completing just two laps in practice, he qualified 20th.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1m43.752s 2. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m43.863s +0.111 3. Roldan Rodríguez Piquet 1m43.910s +0.158 4. Diego Nunes Piquet 1m44.014s +0.262 5. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m44.101s +0.349 6. Luiz Razia Arden 1m44.141s +0.389 7. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m44.174s +0.422 8. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1m44.310s +0.558 9. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m44.319s +0.567 10. Alvaro Parente Meritus 1m44.321s +0.569 11. Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m44.472s +0.720 12. Marco Bonanomi Meritus 1m44.477s +0.725 13. Sergio Perez Barwa 1m44.546s +0.794 14. James Jakes Super Nova 1m44.552s +0.800 15. Davide Rigon Trident 1m44.649s +0.897 16. Hamad Al-Fardan iSport 1m44.673s +0.921 17. Sakon Yamamoto ART 1m44.705s +0.953 18. Rodolfo Gonzalez FMS 1m44.747s +0.995 19. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m44.864s +1.112 20. Vitaly Petrov Barwa 1m44.879s +1.127 21. Michael Herck DPR 1m44.921s +1.169 22. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1m45.676s +1.924 23. Fabio Crestani Ocean 1m45.837s +2.085 24. Kevin Chen FMS 1m46.428s +2.676 25. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 1m46.485s +2.733 26. Michael Della Stelle Durango 1m46.702s +2.950

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Mortara beats Grosjean to sprint win

Arden rookie Edoardo Mortara claimed victory in today's GP2 sprint race at Barcelona after withstanding sustained pressure from yesterday's feature race winner Romain Grosjean.

Mortara made an excellent start from third on the grid and led into the first corner but Grosjean had started equally strongly, climbing from eighth to third within the space of two laps, and then taking second from Jerome D'Ambrosio a couple of laps later.

At that point Mortara had a lead of 1.2 seconds, but Grosjean slowly ground that down and by lap 14 the Frenchman was within striking range. He made his move with a lunge at Turn 1, but Mortara was able to defend.

That would prove to be Grosjean's only genuine opportunity to pass, and Mortara gradually opened the gap again to eventually cross the line 1.5s clear.

D'Ambrosio did not have the pace to match the leaders but nor did he ever look in any real danger, and had a relatively quiet run to his second podium of the weekend. iSport's Giedo van der Garde had an equally solid if rather lonely run to fourth ahead of polesitter Kamui Kobayashi, who was never able to recover from a sluggish start.

The fight for the remaining points positions was considerably more heated. Super Nova's Luca Filippi got himself into sixth midway through the race, but as the laps ticked away the Italian was clearly struggling for pace and a queue quickly formed behind him.

ART's Pastor Maldonado, who had earlier had a lucky escape when he bumped team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, managed to get past and quickly vanished down the road, but Hulkenberg's hopes of doing the same were dashed when he spun following a touch from Diego Nunes.

Barwa Campos' Vitaly Petrov was also on target for points, but outbraked himself and fell behind the two ART cars while trying to pass Filippi.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Edoardo Mortara Arden 39m55.235s 2. Romain Grosjean Barwa Campos + 1.251s 3. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 6.518s 4. Giedo van der Garde iSport + 14.638s 5. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 17.170s 6. Pastor Maldonado ART + 20.099s 7. Luca Filippi Super Nova + 28.971s 8. Diego Nunes iSport + 29.258s 9. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Campos + 29.433s 10. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering + 31.038s 11. Alvaro Parente Ocean + 32.026s 12. Luiz Razia Fisichella + 33.167s 13. Alberto Valerio Piquet + 33.789s 14. Nico Hulkenberg ART + 34.278s 15. Giacomo Ricci DPR + 38.913s 16. Davide Valsecchi Durango + 40.811s 17. Sergio Perez Arden + 42.258s 18. Nelson Panciatici Durango + 59.664s 19. Dani Clos Racing Engineering + 59.747s 20. Ricardo Teixeira Trident +1m00.052s 21. Davide Rigon Trident + 1 lap Retirements: Karun Chandhok Ocean 21 laps Javier Villa Super Nova 17 laps Michael Herck DPR 13 laps Andi Zuber Fisichella 8 laps Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 0 laps

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Grosjean pleased with strong start

Romain Grosjean believes that the hard work put in between himself and his new team Barwa Addax was rewarded after he took pole position for tomorrow's opening race of the GP2 season at Barcelona, although he concedes that he still faces some difficult opposition.

Grosjean switched to the former Campos Racing squad for this season after spending his rookie year with ART, and says he and the team are starting to gel despite a tough start.

"We had the chance to work with each other in the Asia Series to see how each other was working and what we could improve, and today being on pole is something that is very good for all of us," he said. "Especially because it is the first race of the season and it means that everything is going well between the driver and the team.

"When you don't race you have some doubt, and when you first come you don't know what's going on. But testing was not fantastic, we had to see why that was. We worked very hard with the team and in the end it worked. This morning [in practice] we were fast and this afternoon we were fast again. So I think this is the best way to start the season."

Pre-season expectations were that Grosjean's main threat for the title would be Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi, and the Brazilian bore that out by qualifying second, falling just 0.021s short of Grosjean's time, while Grosjean's Barwa team-mate Vitaly Petrov will start from third.

"We were expecting Lucas to be here, he is here, and it is very good to have Vitaly here as well," Grosjean said. "Expectations? The best thing would be to win. Everybody knows it will be a tough and long race; we know that we will have to be careful with the tyres.

"I'm sure Lucas will be there again. But let's work with the team now and try to set up the car for tomorrow. It is going to be a long race, but I am really looking forward to it."

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Price concludes sale of DPR stake

Veteran team owner David Price has confirmed the sale of his final shares in GP2 squad DPR to new owner Andre Herck.

Price, who has run the team since the advent of GP2 in 2005, will concentrate on driver management. It is unknown whether Herck will now rename the team, which runs his son Michael in the series.

The identity of Herck's team-mate for the main series, which kicks off at Barcelona next month, remains in flux as James Jakes, who tested for the team at Barcelona, is understood to have turned down a deal. Technical chief Andy Miller has also left the squad.

Price will continue to manage Diego Nunes, who has won the last two GP2 Asia feature races with Piquet GP, and switches to former series champions iSport for the main series.

Price is also going to monitor the budget-capped Formula 1 situation, and has not ruled out starting a new team in future.

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Razia scores maiden GP2 victory

Luiz Razia converted his reverse grid pole position into a maiden GP2 victory in the Asia series finale in Bahrain today.

The Brazilian held his nerve through a safety car restart after a five-car crash at the start, and had the legs of second-placed David Rigon throughout the race.

The accident at the start was triggered when Roldan Rodriguez and Davide Valsecchi were taken out by Karun Chandhok and Pastor Maldonado, with Rodolfo Gonzalez also involved.

D'Ambrosio had moved up to fourth from sixth off the line and set about chasing Sakon Yamamoto once racing resumed. He caught and passed the Japanese driver and then chased down Rigon in the closing stages of the race to take second place.

Newly-crowned champion Kamui Kobayashi finished fifth, ahead of race one winner Diego Nunes who recovered to sixth after a making a mistake and losing a couple of places at the restart.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Luiz Razia Arden 43m47.690s 2. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS +11.494s 3. David Rigon Trident +12.646s 4. Sakon Yamamoto ART +13.349s 5. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS +13.892s 6. Diego Nunes Piquet +19.362s 7. Giedo van der Garde iSport +23.183s 8. Marco Bonanomi Meritus +27.813s 9. Sergio Perez Barwa +31.989s 10. Giacomo Ricci DPR +34.428s 11. Vitaly Petrov Barwa +36.252s 12. Javier Villa Super Nova +36.666s 13. Alvaro Parente Meritus +37.230s 14. James Jakes Super Nova +39.266s 15. Fabrizio Crestani Ocean +41.122s 16. Edoardo Mortara Arden +42.111s 17. Hamad Al-Fardan iSport +52.089s 18. Kevin Nai Chia Chen FMS +1m05.417s 19. Michael Dalle Stelle Durango +1m10.175s Retirements Michael Herck DPR 16 laps Ricardo Teixeira Trident 13 laps Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 0 laps Karun Chandhok Ocean 0 laps Davide Valsecchi Durango 0 laps Rodolfo Gonzalez FMS 0 laps Pastor Maldonado ART 0 laps Fastest lap, D'Ambrosio 1m46.648s on lap 6

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Piquet team on top after practice

The Piquet GP team set the pace in the first practice session for this weekend's GP2 Asia season finale in Bahrain.

Diego Nunes and Roldan Rodriguez were first and second fastest, and set the best laptime, nearly half a second clear of the rest of the field. Rodriguez was able to match his team-mate's time despite missing half the session while the team fixed an ignition problem.

Luiz Razia was third quickest for Arden, with Alvaro Parente's Meritus car fourth. The title protagonists were next up, chaser Davide Valsecchi just a whisker quicker than points leader Kamui Kobayashi.

Edoardo Mortara made it two Ardens in the first seven, ahead of Jerome D'Ambrosio's DAMS car, with James Jakes (Super Nova) and Marco Bonanomi (Meritus) completing the top 10.

Vitaly Petrov completed just two laps of the session before stopping his car with an electrical gremlin.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Diego Nunes Piquet 1m44.290s 2. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1m44.290s 3. Luiz Razia Arden 1m44.768s +0.478 4. Alvaro Parente Meritus 1m44.805s +0.515 5. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1m44.827s +0.537 6. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m44.881s +0.591 7. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m44.943s +0.653 8. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1m45.012s +0.722 9. James Jakes Super Nova 1m45.181s +0.891 10. Marco Bonanomi Meritus 1m45.227s +0.937 11. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m45.338s +1.048 12. Michael Herck DPR 1m45.382s +1.092 13. Sakon Yamamoto ART 1m45.553s +1.263 14. Rodolfo Gonzalez FMS 1m45.567s +1.277 15. Sergio Perez Barwa 1m45.594s +1.304 16. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m45.628s +1.338 17. Davide Rigon Trident 1m45.871s +1.581 18. Hamad Al-Fardan iSport 1m45.891s +1.601 19. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m45.941s +1.651 20. Fabio Crestani Ocean 1m46.351s +2.061 21. Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m46.756s +2.466 22. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1m46.886s +2.596 23. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 1m47.730s +3.440 24. Kevin Chen FMS 1m48.392s +4.102 25. Michael Della Stelle Durango 1m50.378s +6.088 26. Vitaly Petrov Barwa 2m02.117s +17.827

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