Luiz Razia beats GP2 title rival Davide Valsecchi to Silverstone victory

Arden driver Razia's 5.6-second winning margin did not reflect how close the action was in mainly dry conditions, although increasing amounts of drizzle made things tricky.

From fourth on the grid, he passed Valsecchi's DAMS car for third on the opening lap around the outside of Stowe. On lap two, he dived past Felipe Nasr (DAMS) for second at Brooklands and quickly homed in on poleman, and early leader, Giedo van der Garde (Caterham). Razia repeated his earlier brave pass around the outside of Stowe on the Dutchman but was not able to pull away.

That was because Nasr lunged past van der Garde at The Loop on lap three, and quickly re-attacked Razia. He jumped ahead of him with a bold outbraking move at Village on lap eight, only to run wide and allow Razia back past. That was one of three position changes in the top six, as Valsecchi passed van der Garde for third at Stowe, and Esteban Gutierrez overtook Max Chilton (Carlin) for sixth at Vale.

Razia got the hammer down at this point, and pulled away from Nasr. The Brazilian fell back into the clutches of his team-mate Valsecchi, and the Italian passed him on the exit of Stowe with six laps remaining.

Although he got to within under a second of Razia's lead on lap 18, Valsecchi gave up the chase and coasted home in second. He now trails Razia by six points in the championship, however, as a result.

Nasr held on to third, ahead of Gutierrez. The latter's removal of Johnny Cecotto from fourth, after running wide at Stowe and clattering into the Venezuelan as he rejoined, is likely to result in a stewards' enquiry. Cecotto (Addax) was fired into the tyre wall at Vale, and out of the race, with just a few yards remaining.

Jolyon Palmer finished fifth for iSport, ahead of Ocean's Nigel Melker.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  Luiz Razia           Arden                37m28.656s
 2.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                   + 5.642s
 3.  Felipe Nasr          DAMS                  + 17.775s
 4.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus                 + 19.969s
 5.  Jolyon Palmer        iSport                + 25.869s
 6.  Nigel Melker         Ocean                 + 28.600s
 7.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport                + 31.980s
 8.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni                + 35.797s
 9.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering    + 38.127s
10.  Josef Kral           Addax                 + 40.378s
11.  Simon Trummer        Arden                 + 40.533s
12.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin                + 48.471s
13.  Daniel de Jong       Rapax                 + 54.161s
14.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering    + 54.643s
15.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax               + 1m15.967s
16.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus             + 1m17.971s
17.  Julian Leal          Trident             + 1m30.456s

Retirements:

     Johnny Cecotto       Addax                   20 laps
     Max Chilton          Carlin                  19 laps
     James Calado         Lotus                   19 laps
     Giedo van der Garde  Caterham                19 laps
     Fabrizio Crestani    Lazarus                 19 laps
     Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham                 3 laps
     Stephane Richelmi    Trident                  0 laps
     Stefano Coletti      Coloni                   0 laps
     Victor Guerin        Ocean                    0 laps