Petrov takes maiden win at Valencia

In the championship race, Timo Glock (iSport) is virtually assured of the title after finishing seventh, while rival Lucas di Grassi (ART) crashed out. They are now separated by four points with a maximum of seven on offer tomorrow.

Petrov headed a Campos Grand Prix 1-2 ahead of teammate Giorgio Pantano. Kazuki Nakajima was third for DAMS - all three aided by making the correct choice of taking slick tyres from the start.

A rain shower had soaked the circuit before the race, but it had dried out enough for slicks to be the right choice at the start. Nakajima raced away from pole position on his slicks, while the next six cars on the grid struggled away on their wets.

Petrov leapt up to second from eighth on the grid, with Kohei Hirate (Trident) heading Pantano. Off the line, di Grassi was forced to swerve into Nicolas Lapierre (DAMS), putting the Frenchman out almost immediately.

Di Grassi suffered a trip through the gravel before pitting for slicks on lap two. A couple of laps later, with rain falling again, he spun out into the gravel and was out.

Petrov took the lead from Nakajima at Turn 2, when Adam Carroll (who had already pitted his FMS car) was in his way. Pantano followed suit, but Hirate spun exiting Turn 6 as he tried to pull a move on Nakajima and he ended his race in the gravel.

Despite the rain, those who had started on wets had lost too much time already to make use of them. For example, Glock was already well out of the points, but he played safe by not coming in for slicks in case it rained more.

Bruno Senna (Arden), who had run as high as fifth, pitted for wets, only for the rain to cease and he soon returned for slicks. He would later crash out.

Those who didn't make unnecessary stops - namely Petrov, Pantano, Nakajima and Marcos Martinez (Racing Engineering) - were in clover.

They were the only cars on the lead lap, with Luca Filippi (Super Nova), Borja Garcia (Durango), Mikhail Aleshin (ART), Andy Soucek (DPR) and Glock heading the next bracket of those on a second-best strategy.

Pantano pushed Petrov hard, both before and after their pitstops, but Pantano's rear tyres went off in the final part of the race.

The Italian then had to fend off Nakajima to the finish, but he then forgot he was right behind him and performed a 'stoppie' at the finish line that caused Nakajima to hit him from behind, removing his front wing!

It was a bizarre end to a crazy race. Martinez finished fourth, ahead of Garcia. Filippi's handling went off horribly towards the end and he spun out after dropping way down the order.

Soucek just held off Glock to take sixth, while the final points went to Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) for eighth and Karun Chandhok (Durango) for fastest lap.

Pos  Driver           Team                       Time
 1.  V. Petrov        Campos Grand Prix          1h05:20.497
 2.  G. Pantano       Campos Grand Prix               +2.495
 3.  K. Nakajima      DAMS                            +2.541
 4.  M. Martinez      Racing Engineering             +51.658
 5.  B. Garcia        Durango                      +1:20.832
 6.  A. Soucek        DPR                             +1 lap
 7.  T. Glock         iSport International            +1 lap
 8.  J. Villa         Racing Engineering              +1 lap
 9.  M. Aleshin       ART Grand Prix                  +1 lap
10.  F. Albuquerque   Arden International             +1 lap
11.  H. Tung          BCN Competicion                 +1 lap
12.  A. Zuber         iSport International            +1 lap
13.  J. Tahinci       FMS International               +1 lap
14.  M. Niemela       BCN Competicion                 +1 lap
15.  A. Negrao        Minardi Piquet Sports           +1 lap
16.  M. Conway        Super Nova International       +2 laps
17.  K. Chandhok      Durango                        +2 laps
18.  L. Filippi       Super Nova International       +5 laps

Not classified

     B. Senna         Arden International            23 laps
     S. Hernandez     Trident Racing                 16 laps
     A. Carroll       FMS International               8 laps
     K. Hirate        Trident Racing                  7 laps
     L. Di Grassi     ART Grand Prix                  5 laps
     R. Rodriguez     Minardi Piquet Sports           4 laps
     C. Bakkerud      DPR                             3 laps
     N. Lapierre      DAMS                            0 laps

Fastest lap: Chandok, 1:22.336