Sentul – Race 2 Asia – Fauzy Happy: Rainy Success

Fairuz Fauzy won the second race of the GP2 ASIA weekend in the storm at the Sentul circuit in Indonesia. For the second round of the season (out of 5 events), the Malaysian dominated the 31-lap race from start to finish, taking advantage of his pole position and the long period under the Safety Car.

« I am very happy to have won my first victory, » commented Fauzy. « This gives me great motivation to repeat this achievement at home during the next race in Sepang! »

A start under safety car conditions due to heavy rain and several collisions resulted in a race of 13 real laps.

During the first seven laps of the race, three incidents disrupted the withdrawal of the safety car. Once the race officially began, Fauzy maintained his advantage over Senna and Petrov. The standings remained almost identical to the starting grid.

After five laps, another collision involving Hanley, Grosjean, Jelley, and Pavlovic forced the latter two to retire, bringing the safety car back out. The Frenchman Romain Grosjean, who was 5th at the time, managed to maintain his position despite the collision.

At the restart, the Frenchman took the advantage over Vallès to be just off the podium.

In the final laps, the battle raged on between the three leaders. Fauzy managed to hold onto the lead over Senna with difficulty, while the latter took advantage of a mistake by Petrov, avoiding an abandoned and poorly positioned car to cut the chicane, thereby losing a few seconds to the Brazilian.

« It was one of the most difficult races I’ve ever done! » Declared Senna. « My setup wasn’t very good and I was lucky to finish second even though the drivers behind me were mostly faster… »

For this second race, only the top 6 score points. Sébastien Buemi, who was 1st yesterday, finishes today in 7th place. He started 8th but benefited from Ben Hanley’s incident.

The race was particularly eventful for the drivers of the only Asian team, Qi-Meritus, as Yoshimoto and Filippi (disqualified yesterday) are 20th and 21st after refueling issues and each spinning out.

In the championship, Romain Grosjean leaves as he arrived with a 10-point lead over the second, this time in the name of Bruno Senna. Valles takes third place, a point ahead of Fauzy, who also scores the point for the fastest lap in the race.

GP2 ASIA – Indonesia – Race 2