Nunes takes first GP2 win at Sepang

There was drama even before the start when pole man Jerome D'Ambrosio returned to the pitlane after a transmission problem with the DAMS car.

He failed to make the start, leaving Nunes effectively on pole. Alongside him James Jakes got away sluggishly, while immediately behind the Briton his team-mate Javier Villa failed to get away at all.

Miraculously everybody made it past the stranded Spaniard, although there were some close calls. From 16th Giedo Van der Garde was adjudged to have jumped the start, and the iSport man soon got a drive through for his troubles.

Helped by the trouble behind, Nunes shot into the lead at the start, and soon opened a comfortable cushion over Vitaly Petrov and Kamui Kobayashi, while Jakes soon passed Yelmer Buurman and Pastor Maldonado to get into fourth.

Petrov was clearly slow, and a frustrated Kobayashi got out of his slipstream with an early stop on lap seven. Jakes then passed Petrov for second, but by then Nunes was long gone.

Petrov and Jakes both made their pitstops before leader Nunes came in on lap 13. That put Hamad Al Fardan into lead, the iSport driver having not yet stopped, and he remained in front until a relatively late stop on lap 18.

That handed the lead back to Nunes, and he stayed safely ahead to the flag, clinching his first GP2 win.

The early stop had ensured Kobayashi stayed ahead of Jakes, but the Japanese driver soon came under pressure from the Super Nova car, but Jakes couldn't quite find an opportunity to pass.

A late stop gained Roldan Rodriguez some ground and got him up to fourth, ahead of Buurman, Petrov and Maldonado. The latter had a couple of moments during a typically scrappy race, and was pushing Petrov hard in the closing stages, while Davide Velsecchi caught them both and claimed the final point after a delay in his stop.

Pos  Driver                Team        Time
 1.  Diego Nunes           Piquet      1h00:46.668
 2.  Kamui Kobayashi       DAMS         +    8.361
 3.  James Jakes           Super Nova   +    9.150
 4.  Roldan Rodriguez      Piquet       +   13.874
 5.  Yelmer Buurman        Ocean        +   16.805
 6.  Vitaly Petrov         Campos       +   41.457
 7.  Pastor Maldonado      ART          +   42.007
 8.  Davide Valsecchi      Durango      +   42.381
 9.  Hamad Al Fardan       iSport       +   51.152
10.  Rodolfo Gonzalez      Fisichella   +   53.240
11.  Alvaro Parente        Meritus      +   54.435
12.  Sakon Yamamoto        ART          +   59.958
13.  Michael Herck         DPR          + 1:01.473
14.  Giedo van der Garde   iSport       + 1:02.518
15.  Fabrizio Crestani     Ocean        + 1:11.958
16.  Giacomo Ricci         DPR          + 1:34.318
17.  Ricardo Teixeira      Trident      + 1:50.428
18.  Michael Dalle Stelle  Durango      + 1:51.455
19.  Javier Villa          Super Nova   +    1 lap
20.  Kevin Chen            Fisichella   +    1 lap

Retirements:

     Driver                Team        Laps
     Marco Bonanomi        Meritus     16
     Sergio Perez          Campos      14
     Luiz Razia            Arden       10
     Jerome D'Ambrosio     DAMS        0
     Davide Rigon          Trident     0
     Edoardo Mortara       Arden       0