FIA F2

Asia: Bahrain: ART weekend summary

ART Grand Prix will take away a win, a DNF and a driver's title from the Bahrain round of the inaugural GP2 Asia series, all courtesy of French driver Romain Grosjean. Starting on pole for race one, Grosjean had a tough race to eventually finish ...

Edited: Apr 9, 2008, 1:37 AM

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ART Grand Prix will take away a win, a DNF and a driver's title from the Bahrain round of the inaugural GP2 Asia series, all courtesy of French driver Romain Grosjean. Starting on pole for race one, Grosjean had a tough race to eventually finish on the top step of the rostrum, the French driver not having the best of starts but recovered after a fantastic drive to his third win in the series.

Race two was not as fortunate for the Frenchman, as he was forced to retire due to brake problems after storming up from P8 on the grid to lead the race by a significant margin. With win number two for the weekend in his sights, a braking problem arrived to spoil the party. However, due to the third placed finish his main rival, Romain's lead in the championship is now insurmountable.

Romain Grosjean:
Race 1 : Qualifying: Pole Position Result: Winner
Race 2 : Starting grid position: 8th Result: DNF
Position at the championship: 48 points, Champion

"First of all I have to say that I am delighted for myself and the team. The title is a nice reward for all our hard work, even though I would have liked to have celebrated it with a win. Alas, a braking problem ruined my second race. Nevertheless, this title is the best springboard for the GP2 main series. Our level of performance was once again very good; pole position was one of a kind. I got it in front of several drivers who knew the track and its traps whereas I had to discover it all in a 30 minute practice session. Apart from my start, I enjoyed myself a lot in race 1. I overtook several drivers and was bloody fast thanks to the car my team gave me. It was sweet and race 2 was just as exciting until the braking problem. But once again, I thank the team and give them a rendezvous for the finale where we'll try to finish the season on a high."

Stephen Jelley:
Race 1: Qualifying: 26th Result: 16th
Race 2: Starting grid position: 16th Result: 9th

"I Had a very difficult qualifying for race one, with a few mistakes, and the first dry run not being very good, and we qualified right at the back, because of a spin. So we started at the back position, but managed to pick up a few places, and finished sixteenth at the end of the race after a long race in the heat. That was okay. We started sixteenth and made a very, very good start, in the first couple of corners making all the right choices while a couple of other cars all crashed into each other and sort of went wide. I managed to get up to sixth place early on, unfortunately dropping a couple of places, making a mistake at turn eleven, and spent most of the race in eighth place, until the second to last lap when I made another mistake and dropped a position. But the race pace was a lot better, and I think it was my best race to date for ART. The car was very good, and it was a good race. Dubai, I know slightly better, having raced there in the first race of the season, and I'm sure I can put that knowledge to good use. I just have to take it one step at a time and get as prepared as possible!"

Frederic Vasseur:

"Romain gave us the perfect weekend as his level of performance both in qualifying and race easily displayed. He was in a class of his own the entire weekend and a lot faster than all of his rivals. Thankfully the brake problem that forced him to retire was not too prejudicial in the end as he is the first GP2 Asia champion in history, one weekend prior to the championship finale."

-credit: art

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