Nico Hulkenberg (ART Grand Prix) won the GP2 championship in Monza on Sunday at his first attempt.  Third place in Sunday’s 21-lap sprint race behind Luiz Razia (Party Poker Racing.com SC) and Lucas di Grassi (Fat Burner Racing Engineering) was enough to give the young German the title with one round of the series remaining.

The young German, who represented his country in their convincing win in the second season of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport in 2006/07, has been the find of GP2 and is the first rookie champion since Lewis Hamilton.  He wrapped up the championship on a weekend where GP2 was the supporting attraction to the Formula One World Championship at Monza.

Rain delayed the start of Saturday’s 32-lap feature race, which started behind the safety car, with Giedo van der Garde (iSport International), showing great maturity in the difficult track conditions.  He took the lead from polesitter Vitaly Petrov (Barwa Addax Team) two laps before the chequered flag. Di Grassi completed the podium in third place.

Razia led Sunday’s race throughout to record his first GP2 win, while Hulkenberg’s third place behind Di Grassi was enough to make sure of the 2009 title as his nearest rival for the championship, Petrov, was only able to manage fifth behind Jerome d’Ambrosio (DAMS).

With one round remaining, at Portimao in Portugal on September 19 and 20, Hulkenberg is the new champion with 90 points.  Petrov is second on 68 with Di Grassi third on 57.