Chandhok wins Hockenheim sprint

Although Chandhok started from pole, di Grassi made a rocket start from fourth on the grid and drove around the outside of the front row to take a commanding early lead.

But after two laps in front, di Grassi appeared to lose pace on the straights - possibly due to a recurrence of the gearbox problem that cost him fifth gear in yesterday's race. Chandhok drafted past him at the Parabolika, but di Grassi responded at the Spitzkehre and retook the lead.

Chandhok wasn't to be denied, however, and got him back again with a brave move at the kink before the Mercedes Arena. Zuber wasted little time in doing likewise, passing di Grassi at the same place a lap later.

Zuber closed the gap to Chandhok, but despite 19 laps of pressure, the Indian didn't look like cracking under pressure and clinched his first win of the year.

In fact, Bruno Senna came closer to Zuber than he was to Chandhok at the finish, Senna having charged past Alvaro Parente at the Spitzkehre on lap four.

It was also good news for Bruno in the championship: series leader Giorgio Pantano made a brilliant start, gaining two places at the start and another two at the hairpin on the opening lap. But his race was ended by broken steering after a collision with Andy Soucek at Spitzkehre on lap three.

"It was only the lightest of touches, I don't know why it broke," shrugged the Italian.

Di Grassi's race was ruined by an outrageous punt from behind by Pastor Maldonado at Spitzkehre, sending him spinning off the track at high speed.

That promoted Senna to third, and he spent the rest of the race catching Zuber. Romain Grosjean finished fourth after an awful first lap, which saw him drop as low as 10th. Javier Villa finished fifth, ahead of Parente.

Senna has closed the gap to Pantano in the championship to 15 points with four race weekends remaining.

Pos  Driver             Team                  Time
 1.  Karun Chandhok     iSport International  38:27.955
 2.  Andreas Zuber      Piquet Sports          +  0.702
 3.  Bruno Senna        iSport International   +  1.274
 4.  Romain Grosjean    ART Grand Prix         +  4.947
 5.  Javier Villa       Racing Engineering     + 10.893
 6.  Alvaro Parente     Super Nova Racing      + 16.383
 7.  Ho-Pin Tung        Trident Racing         + 17.423
 8.  Sebastien Buemi    Trust Team Arden       + 18.364
 9.  Mike Conway        Trident Racing         + 21.808
10.  Kamui Kobayashi    DAMS                   + 22.554
11.  Jerome D'Ambrosio  DAMS                   + 27.503
12.  Vitaly Petrov      Barwa Campos Team      + 28.832
13.  Marko Asmer        FMS International      + 34.160
14.  Davide Valsecchi   Durango                + 34.854
15.  Alberto Valerio    Durango                + 35.468
16.  Roldan Rodriguez   FMS International      + 36.769
17.  Carlos Iaconelli   BCN Competicion        + 41.765
18.  Pastor Maldonado   Piquet Sports          + 46.526
19.  Andy Soucek        Super Nova Racing      +  1 lap
20.  Diego Nunes        DPR                    +  1 lap

Retirements:

     Driver             Team                  Laps
     Sakon Yamamoto     ART Grand Prix        20
     Adrian Valles      BCN Competicion       9
     Lucas Di Grassi    Barwa Campos Team     7
     Giorgio Pantano    Racing Engineering    2
     Michael Herck      DPR                   0
     Luca Filippi       Trust Team Arden      0