Hulkenberg dominates in Portugal

An aggressive start from third on the grid helped the German move up to second behind polesitter Vitaly Petrov (Addax) on the run into the first corner, and while he was unable to find a way past during the dozen laps that followed, the decision to pit a lap earlier paid off instead.

Emerging from the pitlane with a clear track in front of him, Hulkenberg never looked in danger and not even a couple of restarts after safety car periods could stop him from crossing the line with an advantage of almost 10s.

Luca Filippi took second place - his best result since Turkey, and more remarkably, his first classified finish since the Valencia feature race.

The Super Nova driver started from 13th, and opted for a super-early stop in the hope of making up some early ground. It worked, but glazed brakes during the middle of the race and fading rear tyres towards the end brought him within the sights of Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi, who tried everything in the book to get past but was thwarted by just 0.2s in the end. Petrov in fourth underlined how close things were by crossing the line 0.4s later.

Roldan Rodriguez's efforts at avoiding trouble were rewarded with fifth for Piquet, while DPR's Michael Herck earned his best result of the season with sixth. The Romainian was forced to work hard for his points too, having spent the middle stint of the race caught up in a fierce midfield battle where as many as nine cars covered by only four seconds were battling for the minor points positions.

A late charge from Kamui Kobayashi got the DAMS driver up to seventh with Addax's Davide Valsecchi picking up eighth and pole for the sprint race.

The frantic scrap among the middle order was not without its casualties. Pastor Maldonado (ART) had been on track for point for most of the race but flat-spotted his tyres badly in the process and gradually dropped through the field, and Ocean's Alvaro Parente and Arden's Sergio Perez managed to eliminate each other while disputing ninth.

Racing Engineering's Dani Clos was also on target for points but lost a lot of time to a dramatic spin on the hill down to the hairpin, while Edoardo Mortara (Arden) was a first-lap casualty after clashing with Javier Villa (Super Nova) at Turn 2. The Italian's sole consolation could come from the fact that he was not the first retirement; an unfortunate distinction that DPR's Johnny Cecotto earned when he managed to crash while exiting the pits to join the dummy grid.

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time/Gap
 1.  Nico Hulkenberg      ART                 1h03m43.837s
 2.  Luca Filippi         Super Nova              + 9.730s
 3.  Lucas di Grassi      Racing Engineering      + 9.936s
 4.  Vitaly Petrov        Addax                  + 10.360s
 5.  Roldan Rodriguez     Piquet                 + 15.095s
 6.  Michael Herck        DPR                    + 15.418s
 7   Kamui Kobayashi      DAMS                   + 24.097s
 8.  Davide Valsecchi     Addax                  + 29.337s
 9.  Andreas Zuber        Coloni                 + 32.301s
10.  Davide Rigon         Trident                + 33.012s
11.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering     + 34.473s
12.  Luiz Razia           Coloni                 + 35.096s
13.  Pastor Maldonado     ART                    + 37.551s
14.  Ricardo Teixeira     Trident                + 38.143s
15.  Diego Nunes          iSport                 + 38.478s
16.  Javier Villa         Super Nova             + 40.020s

Retirements:

     Alvaro Parente       Ocean              22 laps
     Sergio Perez         Arden              22 laps
     Giedo van der Garde  iSport             22 laps
     Alberto Valerio      Piquet             4 laps
     Jerome d'Ambrosio    DAMS               4 laps
     Karun Chandhok       Ocean              1 lap
     Edoardo Mortara      Arden              0 laps
     Johnny Cecotto       DPR                0 laps