Giedo van der Garde made the best possible start to the 2008 World Series by Renault season, dominating at Monza by qualifying on pole and winning both of the weekend's two races.
The 23 year old, who also celebrated his birthday over the weekend, took the maximum points possible from historic Italian venue as he and the P1 Motorsport team jumped into an early lead in the driver and constructor championships.
The unique reverse grid format employed by the World Series - albeit run without the additional Superpole phase at Monza - saw van der Garde start from seventh in Saturday's opening 24-lap encounter, but that proved little deterrent as the determined Dutchman moved through the field in an impressive display of opportunism and composure.
Having avoided the usual chaos coming into the first corner, van der Garde made up a couple of places on the first lap and, within no time, was chasing Comtec's Pasquale di Sabatino for the lead. Gaining a couple of tenths each lap, the P1 car soon had the Italian under pressure and, on lap ten, carved around the outside at the second chicane to seize the lead. From then, van der Garde was able to pull away to open out a five-second margin by the time he took the chequered flag.
“I'm really pleased with how we performed this afternoon," he said after the podium celebrations, "I got a good start and managed to avoid the trouble at the first chicane. Then I kept pushing to get second position.
"The car felt great and I was able to be late on the brakes and gain a lot of time on di Sabatino. We got close coming into the chicane, but I was able to hold track position and drive around the outside of him to get ahead. It's a great result for the whole team, who did a stunning job.”
![Giedo van der Garde - P1 Motorsport [pic credit: Renault Sport Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/433689.jpg)
