Maldonado dominates in Monaco
Pastor Maldonado dominated Saturday's GP2 feature race at Monaco, keeping his cool despite two safety car periods that twice negated his lead
Maldonado is the fifth winner of the season and Trident are the fifth team from five races to win too.
The Venezuelan led virtually from start to finish, with only the late stopping Bruno Senna (Arden) briefly heading him.
Maldonado crossed the line 8.4 seconds ahead of Giorgio Pantano (Campos), who was followed home by Timo Glock, who battled his way through from eighth on the grid after throttle problems in qualifying, and Luca Filippi (Super Nova).
Maldonado's biggest concern was two safety cars, the first for Javier Villa's big shunt at the Swimming Pool, which trashed an 8-second lead; and another when Jason Tahinci crashed at Tabac and there was no crane on hand to winch his car clear.
But every time Pantano was on his tail, Maldonado would simply pull clear again at the restart. His only real moment of the race was at Rascasse, when he ran perilously wide on one occasion.
The remaining points finishers were Lucas di Grassi (ART), who finished fifth, ahead of Vitaly Petrov (Campos), Sebastien Buemi (ART) and Antonio Pizzonia.
Xandi Negrao also scored a point for Minardi/Piquet after pitting for new tyres and setting fastest lap.
Bruno Senna, who won in Barcelona two weeks ago, finished 11th after his pit strategy failed to pay off.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Maldonado Trident Racing 1h06:49.495
2. Pantano Campos Grand Prix + 8.439
3. Glock iSport International + 10.936
4. Filippi Super Nova International + 11.302
5. Di Grassi ART Grand Prix + 14.286
6. Petrov Campos Grand Prix + 15.059
7. Buemi ART Grand Prix + 16.622
8. Pizzonia FMS International + 18.104
9. Zaugg Arden International + 18.714
10. Nakajima DAMS + 23.139
11. Senna Arden International + 23.526
12. Hirate Trident Racing + 42.152
13. Tung BCN Competicion + 45.834
14. Soucek DPR + 68.405
15. Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports + 1 Lap
16. Garcia Durango + 5 Laps
17. Jimenez Racing Engineering + 5 Laps
Not Classified:
Driver Team Laps
Bakkerud DPR 28
Tahinci FMS International 26
Villa Racing Engineering 23
Lapierre DAMS 16
Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 14
Yamamoto BCN Competicion 9
Conway Super Nova International 6
Zuber iSport International 0
Chandhok Durango 0
Fastest lap: Negrao, 1:22.584 on lap 44
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