Valsecchi Wins GP2 Asia Title with Bahrain Victory

Italian driver Davide Valsecchi clinched the GP2 Asia Series title a couple of hours ago, when powering to the win in the feature race of the Bahrain meeting this weekend. Having lost the pole position by only 0.003 seconds to Jules Bianchi on Thursday, the iSport racer managed to keep his calm and cross the finish line in first place earlier today, securing enough points from rival and teammate Oliver Turvey in order to become new GP2 Asia champion.

Pole-sitter Jules Bianchi had a poor start this morning and fell out of contention for the win after the first hundreds of meters, leaving the trio formed by Javier Villa, Luca Filippi and Valsecchi to battle for the win.

Spending the majority of the morning action in 3rd place, the iSport driver improved his lap times consistently in the late stages of the race and, with only 7 laps to go, he was practically “glued” to second placed Filippi. It took him a single lap to pass his countryman for the runner-up spot, and then another one to catch Villa and pass him for the leading position.

The Spaniard eventually lost his second place to Filippi, after his tires started fading in the dying laps of the race. He barely made the podium in the end, as 4th placed Giacomo Ricci crossed the finish line only 0.1 seconds behind Villa. The overall Top 8 was completed by Charles Pic, Alvaro Parente, Sergio Perez and Adrian Zaugg.

Valsecchi's win wouldn't have been enough for the GP2 Asia title had Turvey managed to score some point of his own in Bahrain. However, the Brit payed tribute to a failed pit stop in the race and eventually had to settle for 10th place (behind 9th placed Jules Bianchi).