Kobayashi takes title as Nunes wins

The Toyota Formula 1 test driver made a poor start from pole position but recovered his way to the front by making an early pitstop and running out of sequence with his rivals.

With Davide Valsecchi, his only real title threat, outside the top 10 all afternoon, Kobayashi was all but assured of the title, while Piquet GP drivers Diego Nunes and Roldan Rodriguez scored a dominant 1-2 for the team up front.

Kobayashi ran third after the pitstops had shaken out, but his DAMS team-mate Jerome D'Ambrosio was flying, recovering from a 10-place grid penalty after setting the fastest time in qualifying yesterday.

D'Ambrosio ran down and passed Giedo van der Garde, Luiz Razia then caught Kobayashi himself to squabble over the final spot on the podium. Kobayashi had the title in mind and put up little resistance as his team-mate blasted by on the main straight.

Sakon Yamamoto led several laps by making his pitstop later than his rivals and then charged through the pack in the second half of the race on his fresher rubber.

He demoted Sergio Perez, Karun Chandhok and Razia on his way up to fifth, where he came across van der Garde, but he could not find a way by the Dutchman in the closing stages.

David Rigon also made a late surge, passing Chandhok and Razia to finish seventh and give Razia the reverse grid pole position for Sunday's race.

Pos Driver                  Team                   Time        
 1. Diego Nunes             Piquet GP        59m59.025s
 2. Roldan Rodriguez        Piquet GP           +4.906s
 3. Jerome D'Ambrosio       DAMS                +7.905s
 4. Kamui Kobayashi         DAMS               +15.282s
 5. Giedo van der Garde     iSport             +20.774s
 6. Sakon Yamamoto          ART                +31.624s
 7  Davide Rigon            Trident            +48.010s
 8. Luiz Razia              Arden              +50.923s
 9. Karun Chandhok          Ocean              +55.684s
10. James Jakes             Super Nova         +55.853s
11. Giacomo Ricci           DPR                +57.571s
12. Sergio Perez            Barwa              +57.875s
13. Michael Herck           DPR                +58.122s
14. Marco Bonanomi          Meritus          +1m05.328s
15. Javier Villa            Super Nova       +1m15.745s
16. Davide Valsecchi        Durango          +1m18.479s
17. Ricardo Teixeira        Trident          +1m28.508s
18. Fabrizio Crestani       Ocean               + 1 lap
19. Vitaly Petrov           Barwa              + 2 laps

Retirements

    Rodolfo Gonzalez        FMS                 16 laps
    Edoardo Mortara         Arden               12 laps
    Alvaro Parente          Meritus             12 laps
    Kevin Nai Chia Chen     FMS                  7 laps
    Hamad Al Fardan         iSport               4 laps
    Pastor Maldonado        ART                  0 laps
    Michael Dalle Stelle    Durango              0 laps


Fastest lap, D'Ambrosio 1m46.954s on lap 23