Valsecchi claims first win in two years

The iSport driver made a good start from fourth on the grid, took the lead on the run out of the first corner and repulsed a mid-race challenge from Luiz Razia to win by just under a second.

The key to Valsecchi's win was the early seconds of the race, after Super Nova driver Josef Kral made a bad start from pole position. From fourth on the grid, Valsecchi went into Turn 1 just behind the DAMS car of Romain Grosjean and Razia, but the Brazilian to get out of shape at the exit of the corner and run off the track.

This left Valsecchi and Grosjean side by side on the run to Turn 2, only for Razia to rejoin aggressively and force the ex-Renault Formula 1 driver to lift.

Valsecchi quickly established a lead of just over a second, and despite Razia closing in to within striking distance during the middle laps, he was never under any serious threat.

Grosjean kept hold of third throughout the race but, despite briefly looking like making the battle for the lead a three-car affair, had to settle for a podium finish ahead of Dani Clos, who just missed out on overhauling Jules Bianchi for third in the standings.

Kral claimed fifth place after spending the first half of the race under pressure from the second iSport car of Oliver Turvey. But in the closing stages, Turvey's attention was on holding off charging ex-Red Bull junior Brendon Hartley, who just missed out on his first GP2 point. It was Turvey's 12th consecutive points finish.

Race one winner Sergio Perez failed to finish after an ill-judged attempt to pass Sam Bird for fifth on lap five. The Mexican, who will race for Sauber in F1 next year, lunged up the inside of the ART driver into Turn 8, launching Bird into the air and putting both out of the race. This also ended Bird's chances of taking third in the championship.

It was also a fraught race for champion Pastor Maldonado, who failed to score points for the sixth race in succession in 10th after starting 17th.

Virgin F1 hopeful Giedo van der Garde also had a difficult race, salvaging fastest lap after serving three drive-through penalties for a jump-start, failure to respect the track limits and then speeding in the pitlane.

Rapax clinched the team's championship thanks to Razia's result, beating Barwa Addax to the title.

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time/Gap
 1.  Davide Valsecchi     iSport               40m59.120s
 2.  Luiz Razia           Rapax                  + 0.925s
 3.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                   + 5.107s
 4.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering     + 5.597s
 5.  Josef Kral           Super Nova            + 17.853s
 6.  Oliver Turvey        iSport                + 21.516s
 7.  Brendon Hartley      Coloni                + 21.924s
 8.  Jules Bianchi        ART                   + 22.567s
 9.  Jerome D'Ambrosio    DAMS                  + 24.665s
10.  Pastor Maldonado     Rapax                 + 25.171s
11.  Michael Herck        DPR                   + 25.672s
12.  Charles Pic          Arden                 + 31.925s
13.  Max Chilton          Ocean                 + 35.481s
14.  Ho-Pin Tung          Racing Engineering    + 36.654s
15.  Fabrizio Crestani    DPR                   + 37.828s
16.  Fabio Leimer         Ocean                 + 38.401s
17.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Arden                 + 38.964s
18.  James Jakes          Coloni                + 51.778s
19.  Giedo van der Garde  Barwa Addax         + 1m16.380s

Retirements:

     Marcus Ericsson      Super Nova          18 laps
     Federico Leo         Trident             10 laps
     Sam Bird             ART                 4 laps
     Sergio Perez         Barwa Addax         4 laps
     Adrian Zaugg         Trident             0 laps