Christian Vietoris ended the GP2 Series season on a high with victory in the final race of the season at Monza. In doing so, the German repeated his win in the Italian sprint race from 12 months ago.
The story coming into the race was the fight over second place in the championship standings behind champion Romain Grosjean, with all six previous vice-champions having gone on to race in Formula 1. Charles Pic, starting the sprint race from seventh, led the way one point ahead of feature race winner Luca Filippi. Jules Bianchi though was only three points behind Pic and was starting the race from pole position courtesy of the reverse grid.
The pressure was on the ART driver, who would have been keen to secure the place to banish the memory of a dreadful start to the season that killed off his championship challenge before it ever really began.
When the race got underway neither he nor fellow front row starter Fabio Leimer got away particularly well, and it was third-place-starter Vietoris who carved his way through the middle of them to take the lead. Bianchi ran across the inside of the chicane as he fought for second with Leimer. Although he ended up in the lead he would have to retreat to third place.
Further back Charles Pic ran into the back of Grosjean's car in the middle of the chicane, getting his front wing lodged against his front right tyre. With little control over his steering, Pic rubbed alongside Filippi before retiring off to the left and leaving his chances of holding onto the runner-up spot out of his hands. Grosjean meanwhile had to visit the pits for a new rear wing before rejoining two laps down.
Up front Leimer was able to pull alongside Vietoris into the second chicane but couldn't get the job done and would have to settle for second place behind the Racing Engineering driver, who scored his second win from four races.
Bianchi completed the podium in third after keeping Sam Bird at bay. Adam Carroll had been fourth early on but lost places to Bird and Filippi before later falling to 11th by the flag. Filippi's fifth place finish was enough to tie with Bianchi for second place overall, which would have seen the Italian take the honours as a result of having more wins. He confirmed the championship result with the fastest lap, which gave him a bonus point.
Esteban Gutierrez completed the points in sixth, seven seconds behind Filippi having been held up behind Carroll for several laps.
Sprint race results – 21 laps:
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time/Gap |
| 1 | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 32:51.770 |
| 2 | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 0.730 |
| 3 | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 2.851 |
| 4 | Sam Bird | iSport International | 3.556 |
| 5 | Luca Filippi | Scuderia Coloni | 4.010 |
| 6 | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 10.957 |
| 7 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 11.584 |
| 8 | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 16.079 |
| 9 | Luiz Razia | Caterham Team AirAsia | 17.619 |
| 10 | Pal Varhaug | DAMS | 19.814 |
| 11 | Adam Carroll | Super Nova Racing | 22.136 |
| 12 | Alvaro Parente | Carlin | 22.617 |
| 13 | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 22.966 |
| 14 | Stephane Richelmi | Trident Racing | 24.538 |
| 15 | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 35.241 |
| 16 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 35.408 |
| 17 | Josef Kral | Arden International | 35.681 |
| 18 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 36.244 |
| 19 | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 37.728 |
| 20 | Brendon Hartley | Ocean Racing Technology | 83.392 |
| 21 | Romain Grosjean | DAMS | + 2 laps |
| Ret | Davide Valsecchi | Caterham Team AirAsia | 12 laps |
| Ret | Julian Leal | Rapax | 0 laps |
| Ret | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 0 laps |
| Ret | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 0 laps |
Final drivers' standings after 9 rounds:
|
Pos |
Driver |
Points |
| 1 | Romain Grosjean | 89 |
| 2 | Luca Filippi | 54 |
| 3 | Jules Bianchi | 53 |
| 4 | Charles Pic | 52 |
| 5 | Giedo van der Garde | 49 |
| 6 | Sam Bird | 45 |
| 7 | Christian Vietoris | 35 |
| 8 | Davide Valsecchi | 30 |
| 9 | Dani Clos | 30 |
| 10 | Marcus Ericsson | 25 |
| 11 | Stefano Coletti | 22 |
| 12 | Luiz Razia | 19 |
| 13 | Esteban Gutierrez | 15 |
| 14 | Fabio Leimer | 15 |
| 15 | Josef Kral | 15 |
| 16 | Alvaro Parente | 8 |
| 17 | Adam Carroll | 6 |
| 18 | Fairuz Fauzy | 5 |
| 19 | Brendon Hartley | 4 |
| 20 | Max Chilton | 4 |
| 21 | Michael Herck | 1 |
| 22 | Kevin Mirocha | 0 |
| 23 | Pal Varhaug | 0 |
| 24 | Johnny Cecotto | 0 |
| 25 | Oliver Turvey | 0 |
| 26 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | 0 |
| 27 | Julian Leal | 0 |
| 28 | Jolyon Palmer | 0 |
| 29 | Davide Rigon | 0 |
| 30 | Kevin Ceccon | 0 |
| 31 | Stephane Richelmi | 0 |
| 32 | Mikhail Aleshin | 0 |
