Clos Wins Imola Sprint Race As Grosjean Seals Title

Dani Clos won the final race of the 2011 GP2 Asia Series at Imola, as Romain Grosjean clinched the title, despite receiving a post-race penalty that dropped him out of the points-paying positions.

Clos took the lead of the race when polesitter Fairuz Fauzy struggled to get away as the lights went out. The Malaysian dropped several places, and then locked up going into the first corner. This caused him to hit Jules Bianchi, with Stefano Coletti also being taken out. With Bianchi being the only man who could stop points leader Grosjean coming into the final race his retirement handed the title to the DAMS driver.

Having climbed to fourth following the carnage ahead of him, Grosjean set about scoring a podium finish. As Clos held onto the lead from Fabio Leimer, Grosjean began looking for a way past Giedo van der Garde for third. He could not find a way through though, and instead came under pressure from Esteban Gutierrez behind. On the penultimate lap the Mexican attacked the Frenchman into the Variante Alta chicane. Grosjean held onto the position by taking to the grass, something that the stewards were not too impressed with. After the race they gave him a 20 second penalty for not respecting the track limits, which dropped him to seventh.

Clos held on under pressure from Leimer to take the victory for his Racing Engineering team. Van der Garde completed the podium, with Gutierrez classified fourth following Grosjean's penalty. Michael Herck was fifth after Rodolfo Gonzalez retired with mechanical failure, with Pal Varhaug taking the final point in sixth.

Final results: