Pantano wins thriller at Silverstone

Pantano started fifth, but made immediate headway when the slow-starting Romain Grosjean forced Andi Zuber to lift at the first corner, allowing Pantano to grab fourth. Bruno Senna led from pole, with Lucas di Grassi passing fellow Renault protege Grosjean off the line.

Senna set fastest lap on the third tour, to forge a convincing lead, only to run wide at Stowe and lose four places as he fought for control on the grass.

He gained one back almost immediately, as Zuber had a huge spin at Vale a lap later, almost wiping Pantano out, but dropping himself to 12th.

Di Grassi now led, and pulled away as Grosjean battled with Pantano, with Senna still in touch too. Further back, Karun Chandhok, who was making superb progress from 10th on the grid, pulled off a superb move around the outside of Andy Soucek at Stowe corner. A couple of laps later, he dived past Luca Filippi to take fifth at Brooklands.

The mandatory pitstops started on lap 15 for the leaders, with Grosjean, Pantano and di Grassi stopping in successive laps. This didn't change the top three, but thanks to a charge on new tyres after an early stop, Kamui Kobayashi leapt up to fourth, only to lose it when his car ground to a halt at half distance.

Zuber too had also stopped early, and leapt ahead of the iSport cars of Chandhok and Senna, which had swapped places in the pitstops when Bruno had to brake to miss di Grassi, who had been released directly into his path.

Pantano attacked second-placed Grosjean for lap after lap, finally finding a way past at Abbey after a bout of wheel-banging under braking. He was 3.7secs behind leader di Grassi, but carved into his advantage.

With six laps remaining, Pantano caught him and pulled off a spectacular move that started at Stowe and ended at Club, as di Grassi did not give his lead up without a fight. Pantano eased away to a 4sec victory - and seta a new record for total GP2 wins (eight), eclipsing the tally he previously shared with Timo Glock.

Behind them, Chandhok and Senna caught Grosjean, who was struggling for pace with tyres that were completely shot. After aborting a pass Chandhok made under waved yellows on Grosjean at Stowe, Sebastien Buemi took the chance to jump past Senna a couple of corners later, making it a four-way fight for the final spot on the podium.

Chandhok grabbed third from Grosjean with just two laps to go with a decisive lunge at Brooklands. Moments later, Senna repassed Buemi at Becketts, only to lose the place again by running wide at Stowe.

On the next lap, it was Buemi who gained a place, passing Grosjean for fourth at Becketts, with Senna making it three abreast for a hair-raising moment. On the final lap, Senna drove around the outside of Grosjean at Stowe, only to throw the place away with a trip across the gravel at Priory, costing himself a vital point.

Pantano now leads the championship by 13 points from Senna, with Buemi now passing Grosjean for third in the standings.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Pantano       Racing Engineering        56:38.094
 2.  Di Grassi     Barwa Campos Team         + 4.060
 3.  Chandhok      iSport International      + 10.280
 4.  Buemi         Trust Team Arden          + 15.114
 5.  Grosjean      ART Grand Prix            + 18.842
 6.  Senna         iSport International      + 18.988
 7.  Zuber         Piquet Sports             + 20.205
 8.  Filippi       ART Grand Prix            + 23.311
 9.  D'ambrosio    Dams                      + 25.590
10.  Petrov        Barwa Campos Team         + 35.431
11.  Rodriguez     FMS International         + 36.886
12.  Soucek        Super Nova Racing         + 40.911
13.  Villa         Racing Engineering        + 50.712
14.  Conway        Trident Racing            + 53.147
15.  Buurman       Trust Team Arden          + 53.384
16.  Parente       Super Nova Racing         + 56.497
17.  Nunes         DPR                       + 59.654
18.  Tung          Trident Racing            + 61.002
19.  Valsecchi     Durango                   + 61.263
20.  Asmer         FMS International         + 64.667
21.  Valerio       Durango                   + 67.767
22.  Valles        BCN Competicion           + 76.876
23.  Herck         DPR                       + 1 lap

Retirements:

    Driver                  Team                        Laps
    Maldonado               Piquet Sports                30
    Kobayashi               Dams                         20
    Iaconelli               BCN Competicion              0

Fastest lap: Pantano, 1:31.995 on lap 27