Perfect weekend sees Huelkenberg lead

Eurosport - Sun, 12 Jul 18:08:00 2009

Home driver Nico Huelkenberg completed a perfect weekend of double race win, pole position and fastest lap at the German GP2 at the Nurburgring.

GP2 Asia 2009 Nico Hulkenberg Huelkenberg crash.net - 0

ART Grand Prix's Huelkenberg delivered a crushing display in wet conditions to win the sprint race from Alvaro Parente and Kamui Kobayashi and take the lead in the drivers' championship from Romain Grosjean.

It was only the second time that a perfect showing has been achieved in the series, the first coming in 2006 when Renault Formula One driver Nelson Piquet Jr claimed a maximum 20 points.

Huelkenberg kept his head amid a chaotic start, with pole sitter Sergio Perez slow off the line. Vitaly Petrov went right but struck the front left of Lucas di Grassi's car, which then ran into the back of Perez at turn one.

The Russian assumed the lead ahead of DAMS man Kobayashi, Ocean Racing Technology's Parente and Huelkenberg, the latter having disposed of Javier Villa at the chicane.

As Petrov added to his lead Huelkenberg quickly went past the two cars between them and was soon swapping fastest laps with the leader, while further back Grosjean had enjoyed a storming start from 22nd and was also overtaking his rivals.

He made it to seventh behind Jerome d'Ambrosio by lap eight, and the pair commenced a long battle.

Huelkenberg closed on Petrov and took the lead when the Russian was given a drive-through penalty for his early collision and served it on lap 14, re-emerging in fourth behind a Kobayashi-Parente fight.

Huelkenberg crossed the line 26.4 seconds ahead of Parente, who eventually subdued Kobayashi to claim his first podium of the season, while Petrov recovered from a spin to finish 0.1s behind the Japanese driver.

Behind them Grosjean hauled his way up to fifth ahead of Villa and D'Ambrosio to claim a few points on a generally disappointing weekend for the Frenchman.

That enabled him to keep hold of second spot in the championship with 42 points, a point ahead of team-mate Petrov; new leader Huelkenberg has 46.

Results:

1. Nico Hulkenberg ART 46m49.622s

2. Alvaro Parente Ocean + 26.454s

3. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 33.501s

4. Vitaly Petrov Addax + 33.688s

5. Romain Grosjean Addax + 44.754s

6. Javier Villa Super Nova + 50.075s

7. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 52.520s

8. Daniel Clos Racing Engineering + 53.961s

9. Pastor Maldonado ART + 56.954s

10. Davide Valsecchi Durango +1m14.361s

11. Diego Nunes iSport +1m29.582s

12. Michael Herck DPR +1m33.086s

13. Nelson Panciatici Durango +1m34.670s

14. Luiz Razia Fisichella +1m35.180s

15. Ricardo Teixeira Trident +1m39.570s

16. Franck Perera DPR + 1 lap

17. Alberto Valerio Piquet + 1 lap

18. Luca Filippi Super Nova + 2 laps

19. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident + 2 laps

20. Sergio Perez Arden + 3 laps

Retirements:

Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 14 laps

Andreas Zuber Fisichella 11 laps

Edoardo Mortara Arden 7 laps

Giedo van der Garde iSport 1 laps

Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 0 laps

Karun Chandhok Ocean 0 laps

Eurosport

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