Maldonado hangs on to win at Spa
Pastor Maldonado took yet another feature race victory at Spa-Francorchamps today, although he only just managed to hang on under heavy pressure from Alvaro Parente at the end
The Rapax driver was struggling with his car and almost certainly would not have held off Coloni stand-in Parente for another lap.
Parente, who led most of the race before making a late stop, closed rapidly on the series leader during the final lap, but was just too far back to make a move at the Bus Stop.
Another stand-in driver, Romain Grosjean (subbing for injured Ho-Pin Tung at DAMS), took third place after fellow podium contenders Jerome d'Ambrosio and Sergio Perez ran into trouble. D'Ambrosio, who started on pole but lost the lead to Maldonado when both pitted together, eventually retired.
Perez (Addax) took third on the first lap and kept the spot after the stops, but lost that when he had to serve a drive-through for pitlane speeding.
A first-lap accident involving Sam Bird (ART) and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) caused a safety car interruption, but the race ran green from the restart on lap four.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 52m27.763s
2. Alvaro Parente Coloni +0.243
3. Romain Grosjean DAMS +4.766
4. Charles Pic Arden +13.815
5. Luca Filippi Super Nova +16.085
6. Oliver Turvey iSport +21.117
7. Sergio Perez Addax +21.713
8. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden +27.375
9. Giedo van der Garde Addax +30.834
10. Johnny Cecotto Jr Trident +32.342
11. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering +32.772
12. Fabio Leimer Ocean +33.642
13. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova +34.932
14. Jules Bianchi ART +40.297
15. Adrian Zaugg Trident +41.390
16. Luiz Razia Rapax +45.553
17. Max Chilton Ocean + 1 lap
18. Davide Valsecchi iSport + 1 lap
19. Vlado Arabadjiev Coloni + 3 laps
Retirements
Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 20 laps
Michael Herck DPR 18 laps
Fabrizio Crestani DPR 2 laps
Sam Bird ART 0 laps
Daniel Clos Racing Engineering 0 laps
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