Guerrieri wins season finale in Spain

The Argentinean becomes the ninth different winner this season. Walker held onto the runner-up position, finishing five seconds ahead of Carlin's Robert Wickens, and stepped onto the podium for the first time this year.

Bertrand Baguette pressured Guerrieri for the lead over the early laps, and twice ran wheel-to-wheel with the Ultimate-Signature car at Turn 1, before opting to take to the tarmac run-off on the outside of the track.

On the second occasion on lap six, Baguette's short cut moved him into the lead, but the Belgian relinquished the position again at the next corner.

Baguette settled for fourth at the flag, less than a second in front of Frenchman Julien Jousse whose fifth place secures him second position in the drivers' championship.

Both Guerrieri and Baguette lost track position in their pitstops to Jerseyman Walker. The Fortec driver made his mandatory stop on lap six, some seven laps earlier than Guerrieri, who struggled with his car's handling during his opening stint.

"In the first three of four laps the car was alright, but then I began to have big problems with oversteer," said Guerrieri. "As I had track position I decided to try and keep going.

"When Wickens took his pitstop from third, I decided to come in on the next lap. I came out just ahead of Baguette and thought I was in the lead, so I didn't push so much.

"Then I was told that James was ahead and I pushed. I had taken on new rear rubber, and with the balance improved I was able to close in."

Guerrieri hunted down Walker to close within a second with three laps remaining.

He finally forced an opening with a dive down the inside at SEAT. The pair made gentle contact, but Walker was satisfied with the result.

"Even though we scored points yesterday, our pace was disguised because I had sustained some damage from hitting Wickens," said Walker. "We didn't make any big changes to the car today and we have been really competitive.

"Unfortunately, I had used up all my tyres getting to the front, so I always knew it would be a struggle in the last few laps. Fair play to Esteban, we did touch a little but he drove well.

"I could have made it worse for him to get past, but it was important to get a podium."

Guerrieri had started from pole position with an empty grid slot alongside him on the front row. Salvador Duran had been unable to pull away on the formation lap, and was forced to start from the pitlane.

The misfortune compounded a weekend of misery for the Mexican who had crashed on his way to the grid in race one. Duran took some consolation by setting the fastest lap of the race.

Returning from the first GP2 event in Shanghai to take part from the back of the grid, the 2008 champion Giedo van der Garde had a short-lived race, when the Dutchman's P1 Motorsport car became stranded in the gravel on the first lap.

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time
 1.  Esteban Guerrieri    Ultimate Signature      42:34.041
 2.  James Walker         Fortec                  +  1.643
 3.  Robert Wickens       Carlin                  +  6.939
 4.  Bertrand Baguette    Draco                   + 12.196
 5.  Julien Jousse        Tech 1                  + 13.789
 6.  Fairuz Fauzy         Fortec                  + 17.838
 7.  Miguel Molina        Prema Powerteam         + 18.324
 8.  Charles Pic          Tech 1                  + 18.827
 9.  Felipe Albuquerque   Epsilon Euskadi         + 20.068
10.  Fabio Carbone        Ultimate Signature      + 22.006
11.  Aleix Alcaraz        Pons                    + 22.463
12.  Salvador Durán       Interwetten.com         + 27.184
13.  Pippa Mann           P1                      + 32.953
14.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin                  + 36.521
15.  Alexandre Marsoin    Epsilon Euskadi         + 46.200
16.  Claudio Cantelli     RC                      + 46.476
17.  Sten Pentus          Comtec                  + 1:01.025


Not classified
     Driver               Car                     Laps
     Duncan Tappy         RC Motorsport           19 laps
     Marcos Martinez      Pons Racing             19 laps
     Siso Cunill          KTR                     17 laps
     Sergei Afanasiev     KTR                     13 laps
     Alvaro Barba         Prema Powerteam         12 laps
     Pablo Sánchez        Interwetten.com          6 laps
     G.van der Garde      P1                       1 laps
     Marco Barba          Draco                    0 laps

Fastest lap: Duran, 1:35.408, on lap 9