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Perez storms to Qatar Sprint win 

The 2008 GP2 Series Champions, Barwa International Campos Team, concluded a brilliant weekend on Friday in Qatar with both of their drivers finishing first and second of the sprint race at the Losail International Circuit. Starting from seventh and eighth, Sergio Perez and Vitaly Petrov launched perfectly at the start and were already leading the race entering the first corner, the Russian ahead of the Mexican. But a couple of laps later, Perez overtook his teammate at the end of the main straight and managed to keep a 2 second gap all through the rest of the race. He crossed the finished line to claim his second win in his fourth GP2 Asia weekend ever.

Behind them, yesterday's winner Nico Hulkenberg, also made an impressive start, from eighth to fourth and was soon all over Arden's Edoardo Mortara. And while the two Campocars pulled away extending their lead to almost 10 seconds, the ART driver struggled on a slippery track to pass Mortara, but eventually succeed on Lap 15 before Turn 1. Hulkenberg then tried to catch up with the leaders who were ultimately too far away to reach before the chequered flag.

In fourth place, Edoardo Mortara crossed the finished line before Durango's Davide Valsecchi. The rookie had started from an all Arden front row on the reversed grid, but neither him, nor his teammate Luiz Razia managed to keep that advantage. The poleman Razia came out fifth after the start and was then passed by Valsecchi on Lap 6.

With Kamui Kobayashi finishing 18th after he had to struggle with the tyres almost all through the race, and thus failing to score any points, Davide Valsecchi is now 10 points behind the championship leader. Nico Hulkenberg stands in third with Sergio Perez now fourth and just two points behind. The GP2 Asia Series 08-09 remains wide opened.

Hulkenberg king of Qatar

Nico Hulkenberg wins an exciting Qatar night race ahead of both Barwa International Campos Team men

The ART Grand Prix racer displayed a brilliant performance tonight in the first-ever GP2 Asia night feature race at the Losail International circuit to claim a maiden GP2 victory.

However, things did not start so well for Nico Hulkenberg who lost his pole position advantage to Sergio Perez at the start. Further behind the grid, Sakon Yamamoto stalled from sixth and was hit hard by Yelmer Buurman. Rodolfo Gonzalez was also caught in the accident, but fortunately, none of them were injured.

The Safety car stayed on track for the next five laps even coming through the pitlane in order to let the marshals clean the debris. Vitaly Petrov, then third, was the first of the top drivers to pit on lap 10 and this strategy allowed him to pass his teammate after the latter rejoined the track from his own mandatory pitstop a few laps later.

Almost all the drivers chose to pit early, but one man stayed on track: Nico Hulkenberg took the lead and managed to preserve his tyres all the while matching the pace of those who had already pitted. He pulled away and extended his lead to over 40 seconds. That was enough time to come into the pits, change his left tyres and rejoin the circuit ahead of Perez who earlier had gone past Petrov in a strong move at the end of Turn 1. Hulkenberg claimed victory a clear 13 seconds ahead of Perez. With Petrov finishing third, Barwa International Campos Team had a great result which allowed them to close the gap on team leaders Dams.

Behind the Top 3, Championship leader Kamui Kobayashi finished fourth although his pace was surprisingly slower than what he normally displays. He regained speed in the latest stages, but could not get close enough to Petrov. His teammate, Jerome d'Ambrosio, finished fifth having fought long and hard with Davide Valsecchi for that position. The Italian, second in the drivers' championship was followed by Edoardo Mortara and Luiz Razia. Tomorrow's reversed grid will be an all-Arden front row.