• European Grand Prix - GP2

Ericsson takes first GP2 win in Valencia

Marcus Ericsson celebrates his victory © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• European GP2 round

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Marcus Ericsson
• |
• Michael Herck
• |
• Giedo van der Garde

Super Nova's Marcus Ericsson took his maiden GP2 victory at a shortened sprint race in Valencia, crossing the line ahead of Giedo van de Garde (Barwa Addax) and Michael Herck (DPR).

But the victory was bittersweet for the Super Nova team, after its second driver Josef Kral had a huge aerial crash at turn 17 and had to be driven away in an ambulance. Kral's car barrel-rolled into the air after making contact with the back of Rodolfo Gonzalez's Arden and then crashed hard into the barriers. He remained conscious throughout, but was complaining of pain in his back and arms after the race. The accident resulted in a lengthy safety car period that ultimately meant the organisers had to cut the race short due to time restraints.

At the restart Ericsson very nearly lost the lead to a hard-charging van de Garde but just about held off the Barwa Addax car through the first two corners. From that point onwards the race at the front was relatively straightforward with Herck a distant third ahead of feature-race winner Pastor Maldonado (Rapax). Charles Pic (Arden) and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) took the final points positions in fifth and sixth after staying out of trouble.

One driver who wasn't so lucky was Sergio Perez, who made a lightening start and gained seven places, but was then taken out in first-lap pileup. He managed to continue, but by the time he had pitted, he was a lap down in 16th place. He went on to set the fastest lap of the race by a full second but was penalised with a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags while running among the leaders.

Meanwhile, ART driver Sam Bird's also struggled after his car stalled on the grid and he had to start from the pit lane. He went on an impressive charge back through the field to eighth but finished out of the points behind seventh placed Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS).

Championship standings

	Driver	Points
1	P. Maldonado	42
2	D. Clos	27
3	G. Van Der Garde	27
4	L. Razia	20
5	S. Perez	19
6	J. Bianchi	19

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