Nico Hülkenberg of the ART Grand Prix team raced to his fourth win of the 2009 season after he managed to swerve wide clear of an early race yard sale of a crash only to set-up full-sail and race away from Sergio Perez and Vitaly Petrov to claim trace two at Valencia.
Right from the onset, Hülkenberg enjoyed a great jump on the field and began to clear out. Behind, Luca Filippi also enjoyed a great start and was able to stay off the dirty side of the track and zap poleman Kamui Kobayashi Immediately thereafter, a crash resulted in a number damaged machines and the presence of the safety car.
At the restart and despite a broken front wing, Kobayashi held on with Roldan Rodriguez trying to pass him but spinning his car into the wall instead, boosting Hülkenberg to second. Once again, out came the safety car. Right after the restart, Perez, the Mexican, went straight for his rival, while just behind him teammate Edoardo Mortara knocked Alvaro Parente into a spin that, yet again, threw the field into a fray. Thus, the safety car returned once more.
Mortara cut across the Russian's front at the restart but was soon issues a drive through penalty for causing the Parente spin. From there, the top three drivers from the day before were back in control. Hülkenberg, able to pull off a string of fastest laps, created a large lead over Perez, who held on admirably for the rest of the race to claim second just ahead of Petrov.
D'Ambrosio was fourth, even though he had his mirrors full of Diego Nunes' iSport for the second half of the race. Karun Chandhok claimed the final point to make up for losing out on the point he lost yesterday due to broken suspension. In the championship battle Hülkenberg stretched his legs once again to lead rival Petrov by 20 points as they look towards next weekend at the storied Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Nico Hulkenberg ART Grand Prix 44:36.084
2. Sergio Perez Telmex Arden International + 11.609
3. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Addax Team + 13.229
4. J.D'Ambrosio DAMS + 28.580
5. Diego Nunes iSport International + 29.195
6. Karun Chandhok Ocean Racing Technology + 31.608
7. Davide Rigon Trident Racing + 32.101
8. Pastor Maldonado ART Grand Prix + 32.742
9. Javier Villa Super Nova Racing + 34.564
10. Alberto Valerio Piquet GP + 35.784
11. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 39.416
12. Edoardo Mortara Telmex Arden International + 40.966
13. Luiz Razia Scuderia Coloni + 45.114
14. Ricardo Teixeira Trident Racing + 48.860
15. N.Panciatici Durango + 1'18.778
16. Franck Perera DPR + 2 Laps
www.alpinestars.com
