As the lights went off the Repsol rider made a good start from second on the grid tucking in behind pole sitter Lapierre into the first corner. Lapierre initially pulled out a gap as Javier made sure he was confident of the track conditions but by lap 4 he was closing in on the gearbox of the DAMS car. Filippi joined the battle, and the three pulled out a gap of several seconds on the pursuing pack.
Leader from mid-race.
Javi began to apply more and more pressure to Lapierre and on lap 16 his persistence paid off as Lapierre locked his brakes heavily on the entrance to Adelaide and skated off the track. The young Spaniard now put his head down and began to pull away at a tenth or two a lap gradually building up a lead that Filippi was finally unable to close.
With 5 laps left it began to rain and Javier had to drive with great skill, fast enough to keep his pursuing rivals at bay but not so fast as to risk an accident. The remaining laps clicked off as Javi kept a lead of around half a second to take the chequered flag and a fully deserved first win in GP2.
Javier Villa:
“Everything went very well, we were running steadily and always with some margin …it has actually been quite a relaxed race! At the beginning it was a bit difficult to follow right behind Lapierre as I couldn´t push as I wanted. Once he had made his mistake I could get past him and start to really push and lap something like 7 tenths quicker. At the end it started to rain slightly so I had to slow down a little bit but I still had some speed margin in hand in case it should have been necessary.”
Race 1:
Great remount of Javier Villa, who managed to finish seventh from the back, while Ernesto Viso has a serious accident and is almost unhurt.
The race got off to a farcical start when the two iSport cars on the front of the grid veered towards each other as the lights went off. A collision was inevitable and both cars were out on the spot. A few instants later Ernesto Viso had a spectacular accident in which his car went airborne and rolling, and made contact with the trackside barrier Marshalls and the medical team were immediately attending to the stricken driver. Viso was removed from the car after sometime and gradually word filtered through that he had fortunately escaped with concussion and arm injuries.
The race was restarted after an hour for one lap behind the Pace Car. Javier was down in 17th following his mandatory pitstop which he and most of the other drivers took following Viso’s accident, he lost time when he couldn’t leave the Racing Engineering pit as cars of another team had pitted together and were blocking his exit.
He lost a place almost immediately to Soucek but he instantly began to put pressure on the DPR driver and for the next 10 laps was clearly the quicker car. Taking advantage of a faster corner exit Javier drafted past Soucek immediately pulling out several car lengths. Driving with great purpose Javier was soon on the tail of Bakkerud and Hirate and when the two made contact at the hairpin Javi was up to 12th. More controlled yet very fast driving saw Javi reel in Garcia and Yamamoto and a superb exit from Turn 2 on lap 26 allowed the young Spaniard to gain a place at the Adelaide hairpin.
After getting ahead of Garcia next came Zaug and Negrao and Javi was soon harassing both cars, once again there was contact from the two cars ahead and Negrao spun on lap 32 allowing Javi to dive through almost passing Zaug as well.
Over the remaining nine laps Zaug and Javier had a wonderful battle for position and when both Lapierre and Maldonado spun in front of them the two drivers crossed the line inches apart in sixth and seventh.
A brilliant drive from Javier, two more points in the Championship and second on the grid for tomorrow’s sprint race and if he can duplicate today’s speed, a real chance of a win.
Javier Villa:
“I had a good start and went straight to the pits as they deployed the safety car but I couldn’t come back to the track as soon as the tyres were changed because both DAMS cars pitted at the same time and Nakajima was blocking me. At the beginning, it was difficult to be fast but after a few laps I started to push and pass other cars to finish seventh. I really needed a couple more laps without traffic to run a bit faster. Tomorrow I am starting second and the key will be a good start and getting in front at the first corner.”
