Hulkenberg wins, Grosjean takes title

Hulkenberg jumped into the lead after out-dragging poleman Grosjean into the first corner, and pulled out a 1.7-second advantage over the opening lap.

Kamui Kobayashi (ASM) attacked Yelmer Buurman (Manor Motorsport) for third at the Mercedes Arena on the first lap, but his around-the-outside attempt failed, and he lost a place to Grosjean's title rival Sebastien Buemi (Mucke Motorsport).

Kobayashi repeated his move, with a more successful outcome, on Buemi at the same place a lap later to retake fourth, but Buurman was now well out of touch.

At the front, Hulkenberg was two seconds clear of Grosjean until he made a mistake at half distance that allowed Romain to close right up. The Frenchman made one attack, at the Mercedes Arena on lap 19, but the leader edged him onto the kerbs on the exit. Hulkenberg went on to win by 1.2 seconds.

Buemi trailed home fifth, not enough to keep his championship hopes alive as Grosjean moved up to 102 points compared to Buemi's 89 with just tomorrow's final round remaining. He finished ahead of Signature duo Edoardo Mortara and Yann Clairay.

Dani Clos, in a third Signature entry, finished eighth to take Sunday's reverse grid pole - despite surviving an assault from James Jakes (Manor), who was trying to make up for a poor start. Jakes went out after hitting Clos from behind at the Merc Arena.

New champion Grosjean was delighted with his success, and spent most of the slowing down lap driving with half his car on the grass!

Classified:

Pos  Driver                Car                 Time
 1.  Nico Hulkenberg       Dallara-Mercedes    37:53.393
 2.  Romain Grosjean       Dallara-Mercedes    +   1.268
 3.  Yelmer Buurman        Dallara-Mercedes    +   3.806
 4.  Kamui Kobayashi       Dallara-Mercedes    +  10.361
 5.  Sebastien Buemi       Dallara-Mercedes    +  13.600
 6.  Edoardo Mortara       Dallara-Mercedes    +  14.746
 7.  Yann Clairay          Dallara-Mercedes    +  15.511
 8.  Daniel Clos           Dallara-Mercedes    +  25.871
 9.  Tim Sandtler          Dallara-Mercedes    +  26.568
10.  Jean-Karl Vernay      Dallara-Mercedes    +  34.922
11.  Franck Mailleux       Dallara-Mercedes    +  37.955
12.  Edoardo Piscopo       Dallara-Mercedes    +  45.886
13.  Carlo van Dam         Dallara-Volkswagen  +  49.066
14.  Marco Holzer          Dallara-Volkswagen  +  55.165
15.  Basil Shaaban         Dallara-Mercedes    +1:00.534
16.  Maximilian Gotz       Dallara-Volkswagen  +1:00.860
17.  Tom Dillmann          Dallara-Mercedes    +1:18.488
18.  Harold Schlegelmilch  Dallara-Mercedes    +1:31.043
19.  Cyndie Allemann       Dallara-Mercedes    +   1 lap
20.  Filip Salaquarda      Dallara-Mercedes    +   1 lap
21.  James Jakes           Dallara-Mercedes    +  4 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Driver                Car                 Laps
     Michael Patrizi       Dallara-Mercedes    3
     Renger van der Zande  Dallara-Mercedes    0