Dubai: Italian Marco Bonanomi took the final race, but it was Switzerland's Sebastian Buemi who walked away with the overall runner-up spot at the end of the GP2 Asia Series at the Dubai Autodrome on Saturday.
With Frenchman Romain Grosjean laying his hands on the inaugural GP2 Asia Series at the end of the penultimate round held in Bahrain last week, much of the attention was centred on who would pick up the second place in the overall standings.
Going into the final race with Vitaly Petrov (33 points) of the Campos Team in second overall, and iSport International's Bruno Senna (24 points) in fourth, Buemi did just enough to secure a second place to seal his runner-up spot in the overall drivers classification.
Jerome D'Ambrosio of DAMS took the final spot on the podium in yesterday's race.
Petrov, who started fifth on the start grid, was one of the nine drivers who did not finish, while Senna ended in a disappointing 12th place.
Perfect finish
Saturday's sprint race saw Milos Pavlovic of the BCN Competition team starting in pole, while DAMS' Jerome D'Ambrosio and Piquet Sports' Bonanomi followed in second and third on the grid respectively.
"I think this was a perfect way to finish off the final race. I had some minor problems at the start of the weekend, but in the end everything came to a good close," Bonanomi said.
But it was even more satisfying for runner-up Buemi.
"I started my season badly and I had to keep going the way I did if I was to have a realistic chance of taking the second place overall," Buemi said.
"Even after I was told Petrov was out of the race, I continued going the same way I still needed to finish the race and get the points."
Leader Pavlovic was the first to spin out on the first lap, handing over the lead to D'Ambrosio.
But by the fourth lap, Bonanomi had taken control.
Grosjean, who started in eighth, stayed in the same position even as Senna tried to fight through the traffic after starting from the back of the grid.
