Davide Valsecchi cruises to Bahrain GP2 feature race win for DAMS

The DAMS driver converted pole position into the lead from the start and simply drove away from the field.

When his team-mate Felipe Nasr was taken out by the Addax entry of Johnny Cecotto Jr, the safety car was deployed and Valsecchi's 12-second lead was eliminated. But the Italian made a fantastic restart and set about building up another huge lead with a series of laps his rivals simply could not match. He duly claimed his fourth GP2 win.

It was a thrilling battle for second, which was eventually won by current points leader Luis Razia. The Arden driver had to work hard for the spot, putting a great move on the Lotus entry of James Calado along the way.

Lotus had vaulted Calado up the order with an early stop, but the tactic failed to pay as for the final half-dozen laps he came under increasing pressure from the squabbling pack behind him. Birthday-boy Max Chilton (Carlin) nipped by to claim third, before Calado's team-mate Esteban Gutierrez breezed past.

Chilton and Gutierrez fought all the way to the finish, with Gutierrez taking the place on the final lap with a great move. Calado fended off Rapax driver Tom Dillmann for fourth, the pair shadowed by the Racing Engineering car of Fabio Leimer, who was set for a potential podium finish before being hobbled by a slow pitstop.

There was a big gap from the top seven back to eighth, which was taken by Coloni's Fabio Onidi, who will start Sunday's sprimt race from pole.

Rio Haryanto took ninth in the second Carlin car for his first GP2 points, while series returnee Brendon Hartley grabbed the final point for Ocean in 10th.

Results - 32 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time/Gap
 1.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                59m31.115s
 2.  Luiz Razia           Arden                 + 7.770s
 3.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus                + 13.528s
 4.  Max Chilton          Carlin               + 14.088s
 5.  James Calado         Lotus                + 16.278s
 6.  Tom Dillmann         Rapax                + 16.559s
 7.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering   + 17.243s
 8.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni               + 28.109s
 9.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin               + 32.846s
10.  Brendon Hartley      Ocean                + 36.093s
11.  Stephane Richelmi    Trident              + 37.377s
12.  Julian Leal          Trident              + 38.677s
13.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport               + 40.627s
14.  Fabrizio Crestani    Lazarus              + 41.009s
15.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham             + 44.028s
16.  Simon Trummer        Arden                + 44.552s
17.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax                + 47.776s
18.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus              + 52.464s

Retirements:

     Dani Clos            Addax                  30 laps
     Nigel Melker         Ocean                  30 laps
     Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering     29 laps
     Johnny Cecotto       Addax                  16 laps
     Felipe Nasr          DAMS                   16 laps
     Giedo van der Garde  Caterham               16 laps
     Stefano Coletti      Coloni                  2 laps
     Jolyon Palmer        iSport                  0 laps