• GP2 - Monaco Grand Prix

d'Ambrosio secures maiden GP2 win

ESPNF1 Staff
May 15, 2010
Race winner Jerome d'Ambrosio leads into the first corner © Sutton Images
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Jerome d'Ambrosio secured his first GP2 win in his third year of competition when he secured victory in the second of two races in Monaco.

On a reversed grid, d'Ambrosio started on pole and led from the start when he managed to shut out Luiz Razia at the first corner, and as Razia hesitated it allowed Giedo van der Garde to take second place.

Behind the leaders there was no shortage of incident with a spate of drive-through penalties as drivers cut corners and jumped the start, the safety car came out when Alberto Valerio hit the pit-lane wall when trying to overtake Razia, and to add to the confusion Rodolfo Gonzalez then stopped his car in Casino Square.

The safety car allowed the field to put pressure on d'Ambrosio, but he kept his head and went on to win. van der Garde, who finished second, was less than impressed, saying he was "blocked" by d'Ambrosio. "For me he was really, really slow but in the end it's very, very hard to overtake here."

Razia battled on worn tyres to hold off Jules Bianchi but failed to hold on to third place and eventually had to settle for fifth as he was passed by Johnny Cecotto two laps from the end.

"It's a bit special for me because I was born in Nice," Bianchi said. "It's really close to my family, and they were here, so it was really important to make a good result."

"Winning in Monaco is really nice," d'Ambrosio said. "I'm really happy: it's great for the team, and I think they really deserve it, they've done amazing work over the winter without being rewarded as we thought we would be. It feels good: I've had pole, in Asia, I've been second and had some good races, but I haven't been winning and this is just great."

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