Hulkenberg Earns Sprint Victory in Valencia

The German started seventh on the grid for today's second race due to the top eight inverted grid from the Feature race results. Today was the Sprint race which really leaves little room for overtaking normally and being a street circuit, the margin for error is limited and moving up the field is even more difficult.

The points leader simply stormed at the start to ensure that he would have his ART Grand Prix team car in a position to move up and take advantage of any mistakes made by his fellow competitors. His plan worked even before the first lap, let alone the first turn.

"My start was okay, behind Sergio and into turn one it looked a bit hot because there were three cars in one lane, and it didn't look good," said Hulkenberg. "And then they crashed, and I was able to slow down the car to avoid them, which was good, and then from P3 I thought 'we can win this race today'."

Four drivers were sitting on the sidelines with zero laps complete when Luca Filippi had what appeared to be an excellent start from second on the grid to take the lead from the pole holder Kamui Kobayashi. It was a tight squeeze with the DAMS driver touching Filippi's read wheel as they headed into the first turn. Filippi ended up spinning in his Super Nova Racing car, blocking the track and the usual ensuing mess occurred with an immediate full-course caution and a safety car on track.

Those out included Filippi who did finish one lap. Others out included Michael Herck for DPR (13th on the grid), iSport International's Giedo Van der Garde (14th start position), Adreas Zuber for the now named Scuderia Coloni (was FMSI) who was back in 16th for the start. Also involved and out after a DNF yesterday was one of the top contenders for this year's championship, Lucas di Grassi. The Racing Engineering driver still leaves with fourth in the points but now 15 behind the Russian racer Vitaly Petrov who sits second to Hulkenberg.

Addax team's David Valsecchi (10th on the grid) had an mechanical failure at the start and was forced to retire.

While the field regrouped for the restart with Kobayashi still in the lead despite a broken front wing, Roldan Rodriguez was anxious to get by and to take the top position when ended up going off into a spin directly into one of the concrete walls that made up the temporary street circuit. That again brought out the safety car. Hulkenberg by this time was sitting in a comfortable second but knew the Mexican racer Sergio Perez was right behind him.

"Yesterday was not so easy, today was a bit more easy, because I took the right decision at the start and took the right line, got a few places and were P3 at the first corner, and from then on just kept my head cool and then got one place when Roldan went off the circuit," Hulkenberg said.

The stewards elected to "meatball" Kobayashi into the pits to fix his broken wing so the state was set with two of yesterday's podium finishers fighting for the overall lead when the green flag was shown.

The German held his ground with the lead despite the pressure from the Hispanic driver for the Arden International team. Behind the two top runners, another incident was taking place.

"Then Kamui got his black/orange flag and I was in the lead, and then it was pretty steady from then," added Hulkenberg.

Edoardo Mortara, Perez' teammate, was having a go for track space with Alvaro Parente. Before long contact was made and Parente spun with his rivals scattering to find space without taking themselves out of the race. Unfortunately, the Ocean Racing Technology driver, Parente, only had five laps when he also was out of contention.

That was when Feature race winner Petrov moved his Addax team car into position by finding the perfect line to challenge DAMS driver Jerome d'Ambrosio for fourth. One the final turn, Petrov made his move stick just as they headed toward the start/finish line where the safety car was picking up the leader for the third time in only six laps!

The restart again saw a lot of action which led one to wonder if they all remembered this is a tight circuit with little room for a mistake and one error could cost others a finish. Mortara again was a culprit when he tested Petrov on the restart, cutting right in front of him. Alas, due to his earlier shunt with Parente, Mortara was given a drive through penalty.

That left the same three podium finishers in Saturday's race vying for the win. The German decided it was time to open up a gap by laying down the fastest time lap after laps. Once he had the edge, Hulkenberg just had to hope that no one caused the return of the safety car which would have closed his gap over Perez.

In the meantime, Perez was doing all he could to keep Petrov at bay.

If d'Ambrosio wanted to test the waters for third, he truly had no time since the final half of the race was spent with him keeping his lead over iSport's Diego Nunes. The two finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

The final point was another battle between Ocean's Karun Chandhok and Davide Rigon in the Trident Racing car. The two were nose-to-tail coming to the checkered flag with Chandhok edging Rigon for sixth.

Hulkenberg placed second yesterday and with the victory today he has a commanding edge over Petrov for the title with 20 points (75 to 55). Petrov might be breathing easier with the loss of taking any points this weekend by di Grassi. Listed third still is Romain Grosjean but now racing in Formula One, he is not expected back to garner points for the rest of the season.

The next race for the GP2 teams will be on history circuit in Spa-Francorchamps. After today's street fight, the drivers are probably looking forward to the road course in Belgium.

Source: www.motorsport.com