Valsecchi won a dramatic sprint race in the GP2 Series while Azzam captured race two in the WGA Supercars Middle East Championship. Siedler triumphed in the second event of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup.
All three series were being held in support of this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Valsecchi secured his second successive race win of the weekend after taking GP2’s 22-lap sprint in style. The DAMS Team driver gained the lead on the very last lap when he overtook Lotus GP ace Esteban Gutierrez. He went on to clinch the chequered flag in a race time of 39m 22.363s, adding to his win in the feature race on Saturday and capping a fine second round to the season.
Gutierrez and teammate James Calado were second and third, respectively.
Gutierrez tried hard to make it a tough fight to the finish even after losing his lead; Valsecchi won just 0.399s ahead of him. Calado was a little further behind, finishing 10.617s off the pace.
Azzam secured his own superb double in the Western Gulf Advisory (WGA)-backed Supercars championship.
Azzam won Sunday’s race two and led a fantastic Batelco one-two-three in the process. Teammates Mohammed Mattar and Alban Varuttii followed on the final timesheet in second and third, respectively.
The result capped a perfect round for Canadian Azzam, who first set the pace in practice then clinched a double pole in qualifying before winning the season’s final two races.
Sunday’s results capped Batelco’s title-winning run in style for the season.
Azzam had a winning time of 19m 23.807s in the race, while Mattar was 9.767s back. Varuttii finished 10.071s behind the victor.
Raed Raffii of VIVA Racing Team (+10.373s) was fourth and Faisal Raffii of ALBA Racing Team (+11.688s) claimed fifth place. Rounding out the classification of drives in the championship’s elite SC09 category were ALBA’s Mustafa Al Khan, WGA Racing Team’s partners Mohammed Al Baharna and Fahad Al Musalam, and VIVA’s Osama Al Buflasa.
In the SC06 class, Christophe Marriot won in 20m 21.457s. Ahmed Hamada was second and Amro Al Hamad third.
In race two of the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, Norbert Siedler of Veltins Lechner Racing captured a sensational pole-to-flag victory. The Austrian registered a winning mark of 20m 55.702s – just 0.654s ahead of a hard-charging Christian Engelhart of Konrad Motorsport.
Defending champion Rene Rast of Lechner Racing completed the podium placers, taking third place 8.086s behind first.