Giacomo Ricci celebrates victory in Bahrain © Sutton Images
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Giacomo Ricci ended DPR's win drought to secure its first GP2 victory since the 2005 season after leading from start to finish in the Asia series finale in Bahrain.
Ricci, who started from fourth on the grid, pulled away from the field to take a comfortable 5.3 second victory from ART's Sam Bird and Coloni's Alvaro Parente. The result gave Bird his first GP2 podium and Parente his best result since returning to the series.
"It was an unbelievable day for me and my DPR, we did a really good job," said Ricci. "My car was really fast and I made a very good start. I pushed really hard to make a little gap with Sam Bird and slowed down a bit in the middle part of the race before pushing hard again for the end."
Although the top three retained their positions from the first corner to the finish, the racing behind them provided action aplenty with Davide Valsecchi (iSport), Meritus drivers Alexander Rossi and Luca Filippi and the Ardens of Charles Pic and Javier Villa battling for position in the opening laps.
Valsecchi eventually finished fourth despite ferocious pressure from Rossi in fifth. Villa finished sixth but team-mate Pic, who at one point passed both Villa and Filippi into Turn 1, dropped back to finish last after pitting for a suspected tyre problem.
The GP2 season now moves on to Europe, with Ricci keen to build on the momentum of Bahrain.
"Honestly, I don't know what change we've made on the car," added Ricci. "I think the real important change is in the team in general. Our owner made some decisions and here are the results. Everybody work really hard on both cars and that's really good. Let's hope we can keep the momentum for the European season."
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