Nobuharu Matsushita claimed his second career GP2 Series victory with a dominant performance during Saturday’s Sprint race at Monaco.
The Japanese ART Grand Prix driver and Honda protégé started the weekend on the back foot following a practice crash, but fought back superbly to finish eighth in Friday’s Feature race that gave him pole position for the Sprint race, and after controlling Marvin Kirchhöfer at the start, was able to pull away comfortably to take the win.
Matsushita still knows he has to work on his qualifying, but knows the experience of Monaco should help him progress as a driver, with the next race in Baku in three weeks time also on a street circuit.
“I’m really happy with this second race as this is my first win this year!” said Matsushita on the ART Grand Prix website. “I made a mistake on Thursday in turn 1 and then I crashed. Therefore I did just a few laps in practice session and it was not enough for me.
“So qualifying went a bit difficult compared to others. I still need to work on this. I did no mistake on the first race, which was good in Monaco.
“Starting from reverse pole on Saturday, I just had to take a good start and push as much as I could. This is a really good experience for me, as the next round in Baku is also a street race. I’m looking forward to it!”
