Maiden win for Fauzy in Sentul sprint

The Malaysian led a race littered with safety car periods from start to finish, after starting from a pole position he earned with eighth place in yesterday's feature race.

"I'm delighted to get my first win," he said. "This is a big boost for me going to Sepang next, which is my home event."

The race was started behind the safety car because the wet conditions were deemed too dangerous for a normal start. The decision was vindicated when there were two crashes on the second lap, under safety car conditions.

Racing finally got underway on lap seven but the safety car was back out just five laps later when Luca Filippi spun and got stranded in the middle of the track.

There was just one more lap of green flag racing before another full-course yellow as the battle for third between Vitaly Petrov, Milos Pavlovic, Romain Grosjean and Ben Hanley ended in tears.

Hanley tried an optimistic move up the inside of Grosjean but ran in too deep and wiped out Pavlovic. Grosjean emerged unscathed but Hanley had to pit for repairs and Pavlovic was out on the spot.

By the time the cars were unleashed again, there were just six minutes of the race remaining, and Fauzy was able to hold off Senna's attempt to pass him at the restart and record his maiden series victory.

Senna almost lost second on the penultimate lap when Marcello Puglisi spun and stalled in the middle of the chicane. Fauzy and Senna arrived on the scene and darted to the outside, while Petrov saw the obstacle in time to cut to the inside.

The Russian briefly nosed ahead, but Senna fought his way back through and managed to defend the place on the last lap.

"That was once of the toughest races I've ever done," said Senna. "We thought it would dry so my set-up was all wrong for wets. I have to be pleased with second because the guys behind me were quicker today."

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS:

Pos  Driver          Team                        Time
 1.  Fauzy           Super Nova Racing           45:06.344
 2.  Senna           iSport International        +   1.480    
 3.  Petrov          Barwa International Campos  +   1.700   
 4.  Grosjean        ART Grand Prix              +   2.243    
 5.  Valles          FMS International           +   5.079    
 6.  Tung            Trident Racing              +   7.208    
 7.  Buemi           Trust Team Arden            +   7.538    
 8.  Bonanomi        Piquet Sports               +  10.199   
 9.  Ebrahim         DPR                         +  14.656   
10.  Nunes           DPR                         +  16.549   
11.  Khan            Trust Team Arden            +  18.197   
12.  Herck           FMS International           +  19.389   
13.  Chandhok        iSport International        +  19.632   
14.  Bakkerud        Super Nova Racing           +  30.798   
15.  Kobayashi       DAMS                        +  30.813   
16.  Hanley          Barwa International Campos  +  31.378
17.  Tahinci         BCN Competicion             +  33.431   
18.  Puglisi         Piquet Sports               +  2 laps   
19.  Valsecchi       Durango                     +  2 laps   
20.  Yoshimoto       Qi-Meritus.Mahara           +  3 laps   
21.  Filippi         Qi-Meritus.Mahara           +  3 laps   

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Driver          Team                        On lap
     Pavlovic        BCN Competicion               16
     Jelley          ART Grand Prix                16
     D'Ambrosio      DAMS                           9
     Schlegelmilch   Trident Racing                 4
     Valerio         Durango                        3
     
FASTEST LAP: Fauzy, 1:23.203 on lap 16