Maldonado takes GP2 win

Pastor Maldonado took his first GP2 win at the Monaco Grand Prix this afternoon for Trident Racing. The Venezuelan managed to convert his pole position into a convincing win, ending up eight seconds ahead of Giorgio Pantano with championship leader Timo Glock completing the podium trio.

There were only 15 finishers as the Monaco streets took many victims. Luca Filippi ended up fourth ahead of ART's Luca di Grassi with Pantano's team-mate Vitaly Petrov making it a strong race for Campos Racing by coming sixth. Sebastien Buemi was seventh in the second ART whilst Antonio Pizzonia, Adrian Zaugg and Kazuki Nakajima rounding off the top ten. Bruno Senna was a disappointing eleventh for Arden.

Maldonado got away sharply at the start to maintain first place ahead of Pantano and di Grassi. Andreas Zuber was unable to make the most of his third grid slot after stalling on the grid and subsequently retiring. Karun Chandhok crashed his Durango into the barriers at the first corner after being hit by Andy Soucek's DPR. The Spaniard had to consequently come into the pits to have his front wing changed. Maldonaldo started to create a substantial margin between himself and Pantano, who had a queue of drivers behind him. Mike Conway then inexplicably spun on the straight after the first corner, crashing into the barriers. Sakon Yamamoto followed suit a couple of laps later before Roldan Rodriguez crashed in the tunnel losing control of his car on cold tires after his pit-stop.

Next to go was Nicolas Lapierre who spun his DAMS tackling the final few corners and touching the barrier. By this point Timo Glock had got ahead of di Grassi during the pit-stops and was running third. With 21 laps to go David Villa then crashed out at the swimming pool complex bringing out the safety car, which then had to be brought out again four laps later when last-placed Jason Tahinci crashed into the barriers. With five laps remaining, Borja Garcia and Sergio Jiminez collided around the Grand Hotel hairpin, ending both of their races.

Results

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Maldonado Trident Racing 1h06:49.495
2. Pantano Campos Grand Prix + 8.439
3. Glock iSport International + 10.936
4. Filippi Super Nova International + 11.302
5. Di Grassi ART Grand Prix + 14.286
6. Petrov Campos Grand Prix + 15.059
7. Buemi ART Grand Prix + 16.622
8. Pizzonia FMS International + 18.104
9. Zaugg Arden International + 18.714
10. Nakajima DAMS + 23.139
11. Senna Arden International + 23.526
12. Hirate Trident Racing + 42.152
13. Tung BCN Competicion + 45.834
14. Soucek DPR + 68.405
15. Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports + 1 Lap
16. Garcia Durango + 5 Laps
17. Jimenez Racing Engineering + 5 Laps

DNF:

Driver Team Laps
Bakkerud DPR 28
Tahinci FMS International 26
Villa Racing Engineering 23
Lapierre DAMS 16
Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 14
Yamamoto BCN Competicion 9
Conway Super Nova International 6
Zuber iSport International 0
Chandhok Durango 0

Fastest lap: Negrao, 1:22.584 on lap 44