From GMM and the GP2 Series press release

Nico Hulkenberg on Sunday secured the 2009 GP2 championship with one round to spare.

The young German, who is Williams' test driver and tipped for a race seat next season, finished the Monza sprint race third, enough to secure the necessary points advantage over his title rival Vitaly Petrov.

Hulkenberg's champion predecessor Giorgio Pantano aside, all previous GP2 title winners - Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock - went on to establish firm careers in formula one.

Giedo Van der Garde and Luiz Razia won races 1 & 2 in Monza. Van der Garde has claimed his first feature race victory after a titanic, race long fight in wretched conditions, stealing the win in the closing stages of Saturday’s race in Monza from Vitaly Petrov and Lucas di Grassi.

The race was delayed for 40 minutes due to a torrential downpour, but eventually got underway behind the safety car, which stayed out for five laps.

On Sunday morning, Luiz Razia has taken a serene victory in the sprint race in Monza ahead of Lucas di Grassi, but all eyes were on the battle for third place between the championship contenders which was resolved, along with the title, in favour of Nico Hülkenberg.

The German needed to claim one point more than Vitaly Petrov to be sure of the title, and soaked up extensive pressure from the Russian until Petrov ran wide late in the race to allow Hülkenberg to become the first driver to win the GP2 title before the final round.

Behind Razia, Luca di Grassi and Nico Hulkenberg took 1st and 2nd positions.