Maranello, 20 March – Jules Bianchi’s GP2 Asia Series challenge had an unlucky ending, when he was forced to retire from the last and decisive round, held today at Imola’s Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit.

The Ferrari Driver Academy youngster got no further than the braking area for Tamburello on the opening lap, where he was hit by Malaysian driver Fairuz Fauzy (Super Nova) who made a less than brilliant start after taking over pole position when Davide Valsecchi (Team Air Asia) was excluded.

Victory in the twenty five lap race went to Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) ahead of Fabio Leimer (Rapax) and Giedo Van der Garde (Addax,) but it was clear from the opening laps that the 2011 Asian series crown was heading to Romain Grosjean. The DAMS driver finished fourth in Race 2, enough to take the title finishing eighteen points ahead of second placed Jules Bianchi.

The Frenchman was naturally disappointed that having to retire his Lotus Art car, he was unable to fight for the title. “I am definitely disappointed. For some people, the Asian series is a sort of test before tackling the Main Series, but for me it should have been the chance to take a title that I was in the fight for. The next round is the first of the main series, in Istanbul over the weekend of 8 May and now we must work towards that, improving certain aspects, even if the victory in Abu Dhabi and third place yesterday showed we are not that far off.”