Bonanomi wins Asian series finale

The Piquet Sports driver was only third on the opening lap, but leader Milos Pavlovic (BCN), who led from pole position, was forced out after a handful of corners with a dead engine. That handed the lead to Jerome d'Ambrosio of DAMS, but he ran wide at Turn 6 on lap two, allowing Bonanomi to hit the front.

Bonanomi built up a 1.8-second lead over Sebastien Buemi (Arden), who had also moved past d'Ambrosio, but that was negated by the safety car, which was called up to remove the cars of Alberto Valerio, Ben Hanley and Armaan Ebrahim.

At the restart, Buemi understeered wide at the final corner, allowed Bonanomi to escape. He re-established his lead at 2.6 seconds before Buemi's understeering car began to handle more to his liking.

Buemi closed the gap over the closing laps, but was never close enough to pass. He finished just half a second behind Bonanomi, who scored his first success at this level.

Buemi was always conscious of where Vitaly Petrov was placed, as the Russian was fighting him for second in the championship. But when Petrov's fuel pump failed, Buemi just had to bring the car home in the points to clinch the position.

D'Ambrosio finished third, ahead of Davide Valsecchi, although the latter's pass on Ho-Pin Tung with six laps to go appeared to be under yellow flags.

Behind fifth-placed Tung, the final point was claimed by Yelmer Buurman, making it another double points haul for Arden.

Yesterday's pace-setter Bruno Senna could only finish 12th after a busy race that featured much contact in the midfield, while champion Romain Grosjean crashed out during a battle with Petrov.

Classified:

Pos  Driver                Team                  Time
 1.  Marco Bonanomi        Piquet Sports         45:08.527
 2.  Sebastien Buemi       Trust Team Arden       +  0.516
 3.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     DAMS                   +  5.361
 4.  Davide Valsecchi      Durango                +  8.445
 5.  Ho-Pin Tung           Trident Racing         + 11.905
 6.  Yelmer Buurman        Trust Team Arden       + 12.550
 7.  Fairuz Fauzy          Super Nova Racing      + 12.836
 8.  Harold Schlegelmilch  Trident Racing         + 14.306
 9.  Jason Tahinci         BCN Competicion        + 15.948
10.  Christian Bakkerud    Super Nova Racing      + 16.474
11.  Adrian Valles         FMS International      + 16.934
12.  Bruno Senna           iSport International   + 17.214
13.  Diego Nunes           DPR                    + 18.895
14.  Hiroki Yoshimoto      Qi-Meritus.Mahara      + 22.225
15.  Kamui Kobayashi       DAMS                   + 26.212
16.  Alberto Valerio       Durango                +  1 lap

Not classified:

     Driver                Team                   Laps
     Vitaly Petrov         Barwa Campos Team      17
     Roldan Rodriguez      FMS International      13
     Romain Grosjean       ART Grand Prix         10
     Karun Chandhok        iSport International   5
     Armaan Ebrahim        DPR                    4
     Benjamin Hanley       Barwa Campos Team      4
     Marcello Puglisi      Piquet Sports          2
     Milos Pavlovic        BCN Competicion        0
     Luca Filippi          Qi-Meritus.Mahara      0

Fastest lap: Kobayashi, 1:41.220, on lap 22