MAY 27, 2006

Hamilton does it again

Lewis Hamilton took an impressive GP2 victory on the streets of Monaco to record his third victory of the year, eight seconds clear of his nearest challenger Franck Perera of DAMS. Hamilton's team-mate Alex Premat was outdriven once again and ended up third.

Lewis Hamilton took an impressive GP2 victory on the streets of Monaco to record his third victory of the year, eight seconds clear of his nearest challenger Franck Perera of DAMS. Hamilton's team-mate Alex Premat was outdriven once again and ended up third. At the first corner there was mayhem when Tristan Gommendy and Jose Maria Lopez collided. Gommendy was launched into the air and landed behind Nicolas Lapierre. The result of this was that Lapierre ran into the back of Lucas di Grassi and was launched into the air as well. Javier Villa, Gimmi Bruni, Adam Carroll, Xandi Negrao and Nelson Piquet were all caught up in the carnage. Amazingly there was no Safety Car despite rubbish all over the road and Hamilton used the early laps to build a huge advantage. Third-placed Olivier Pla crashed out under pressure from team mate Clivio Piccione. During the pit stops Premat was able to get ahead of Piccione. Andreas Zuber came home fifth ahead of Felix Porteiro, Michael Ammermuller and Sergio Hernandez.

Di Grassi picked up a point for fastest lap after a pit stop to change his rear wing.

The result means that Hamilton now has 49 points ahead of Piquet's 39. Premat has 33.

"It's quite an emotional experience winning here in Monaco," said Hamilton. "It's something that, growing up, you dream of. To come into GP2 in only my first year and win here, and from pole, I couldn't ask for more."