James Calado wins GP2 sprint race at Hockenheim for Lotus

He defeated Giedo van der Garde of Caterham by 7.9 seconds after leading from lights to flag, a great recovery from a weekend that he began with a 10-place grid penalty for a collision with Max Chilton at Silverstone. It was his second victory of the season, and brings him back into the fringes of the title fight in fifth place.

"It's a good win for me, as I've had some bad luck recently and lost some points," said Calado. "To get back to the front, where I belong, and winning races again is a privilege.

"The car was unbelievable; the speed was unreal. It's good to be back in contention again."

Felipe Nasr finished a distant third for DAMS, holding off the early challenge of Racing Engineering's Fabio Leimer. Nasr had grabbed second from van der Garde at Turn 2 on the opening lap, but ran wide at the Mercedes Arena and the Dutchman snatched the position back just as the safety car was released to neutralise the race to recover the conjoined cars of Tom Dillmann and Max Chilton.

They had collided in response to points leader Luiz Razia spinning at the Spitzkehre hairpin. Razia had already run wide at the first corner, losing loads of places from his front-row starting slot, and was challenging Leimer when he got on the kerb and spun all on his own. He recovered to finish 12th.

Title rival Davide Valsecchi (DAMS) fared little better, and also spun at Spitzkehre after the slightest of taps from Jolyon Palmer. He finished out of the points in ninth, but could gain two points if Palmer and Stefano Coletti (who finished seventh and eighth) get pinged for passing Josef Kral under yellow flags.

They were out due to Giancarlo Serenelli's huge shunt at the Agipkurve, from which he staggered away.

Leimer held off a late attack from Esteban Gutierrez (Lotus) to finish fourth. Yesterday's winner Johnny Cecotto Jr was sixth, the Venezuelan snookered into running on softer option tyres as he'd used up all his favoured primes yesterday. He had briefly run fourth, passing Leimer at Turn 2 on lap 11, but Leimer immediately repassed him and Gutierrez further demoted him seconds later.

Results - 27 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  James Calado         Lotus                40m18.134s
 2.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham               + 7.962s
 3.  Felipe Nasr          DAMS                  + 17.509s
 4.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering    + 21.962s
 5.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus                 + 22.353s
 6.  Johnny Cecotto Jr    Addax                 + 33.193s
 7.  Jolyon Palmer        iSport                + 33.235s
 8.  Stefano Coletti      Coloni                + 34.660s
 9.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                  + 38.870s
10.  Nigel Melker         Ocean                 + 41.861s
11.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering    + 42.196s
12.  Luiz Razia           Arden                 + 42.442s
13.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin                + 42.959s
14.  Julian Leal          Trident               + 43.336s
15.  Josef Kral           Addax                 + 43.580s
16.  Sergio Canamasas     Lazarus               + 44.111s
17.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport                + 46.002s
18.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax                 + 46.683s
19.  Simon Trummer        Arden                 + 47.624s
20.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham              + 56.315s
21.  Stephane Richelmi    Trident             + 1m02.778s
22.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni              + 1m13.439s
23.  Victor Guerin        Ocean                   + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus                 18 laps
     Tom Dillmann         Rapax                    0 laps
     Max Chilton          Carlin                   0 laps