Dubai, UAE – April 13, 2008. With one victory,
three podiums, one fastest lap and 24 points, Fairuz Fauzy
claimed
fourth place overall in the first ever GP2 Asia Series
which finished in Dubai today. The five event series, which
included two support races to the Formula 1 Malaysian and
Bahrain Grands Prix has been a terrific success and Fairuz
excelled in the championship, scoring points in seven of
the ten GP2 races.
His final drive in the GP2 Asia Series was the Sprint
Race at the Dubai Autodrome, where the Super Nova ace took
sixth place to secure his fourth place in the drivers’ points
standings. “It’s been a fantastic championship
for me and I have to say a big thank you to the Super Nova
team, my engineers, mechanics and all my sponsors for their
continued support for me in this series,” said Fairuz.
“There have been so many highlights competing in
GP2 Asia – racing in front of my home crowd at Sepang,
which supported the F1 race. Then of course my win in Sentul
in Indonesia! Fourth place in the championship is just
reward for all the hard effort we’ve put into this
series.”
Fairuz’s final race at the wheel of the Mofaz-sponsored
number eight machine came in the Sprint Race at Dubai.
After starting 11th on the grid, the Malaysian slipped
a number of places on the opening lap, but after that began
a storming drive through the field.
By the fifth lap he was back up to 11th place when the
safety car was deployed following a crash involving both
DPR cars, Durango’s Alberto Valerio and Campos driver
Ben Hanley. After the field was slowed for five laps, Fairuz
immediately started his charge on the restart on the tenth
lap of the race.
On the following lap Fairuz made a brilliant overtaking
move past Roldan Rodriguez and when series champion Romain
Grosjean spun in front of him, Fairuz was up to ninth place.
That became eighth when he quickly demoted Jason Tahinci
on the start/finish straight.
In the closing stages of the race, the distinctive black
Super Nova car with its yellow front and rear wings was
embroiled in a thrilling battle for the final points scoring
position with Davide Valsecchi and Yelmer Buurman. On the
18th lap, Fairuz moved up to seventh place and despite
his best efforts, just failed to eclipse Buurman.
However, fourth place in the final points standings was
secured when after the race Ho-Pin Tung was disqualified
from fifth place and Fairuz was promoted to sixth – the
final points scoring position. He finishes the ten race
series on 24 points, one clear of Bruno Senna.
Fairuz’s next outing will be for his country, Malaysia,
in the final round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport
at Brands Hatch, England on the weekend of May 3-4.
Results
GP2 Asia Series, Dubai, Sprint Race:
1 Marco Bonanomi, Piquet Sports, 45m 08.527s
2 Sébastien Buemi, Trust Team Arden, +0.516s
3 Jerome d’Ambrosio, Dams, +5.361s
6 Fairuz Fauzy, Super Nova Racing, +12.836s
GP2 Asia Series, Dubai, Feature Race:
1 Romain Grosjean, ART Grand Prix, 59m 37.711s
2 Sébastien Buemi, Trust Team Arden, +1.933s
3 Yelmer Buurman, Trust Team Arden, +3.549s
11 Fairuz Fauzy, Super Nova Racing, +30.744s
Final Points
1 Romain Grosjean 61
2 Sébastien Buemi 37
3 Vitaly Petrov 33
4 Fairuz Fauzy 24
5 Bruno Senna 23
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