Pantano romps to Monza victory

But the big news was in the title race, where Lucas di Grassi, who started the day just two points behind Timo Glock, was poised to take a one-point lead when his car suddenly cut out with just two laps remaining.

After pulling onto the grass, his ART Grand Prix machine appeared to refire, but it was too late to do anything with it, and he trailed home a dejected 14th.

Glock, meanwhile, ran as low as 19th in the early stages after being caught up in a Turn 1 clash with Adrian Zaugg. That caused the first of three safety cars that punctuated the race, and might have cost Pantano had he not been able to get into the pits before catching up with it.

From the restart on lap two, Pantano pulled out a huge gap to the pack, some of which pitted early, including early third-placed man, Kazuki Nakajima. Luca Filippi, who would ultimately finish second, suffered a wild ride across the Ascari gravel after getting too close to Vitaly Petrov early on.

Petrov's chances of points vanished in a horrendous pitstop on lap 10, but the race's second safety car happened four laps later, when Roldan Rodriguez collided with Andreas Zuber and spun to a halt on the exit of the second chicane.

Pantano dived into the pits unhindered, and such was his lead he rejoined without another car in sight. That was irrelevant, however, when they caught him behind the safety car.

The restart didn't last long, as Andy Soucek ploughed out of eighth place at the Parabolica. As he rejoined, he drove straight into the path of the charging Zuber, causing a huge collision from which they were both fortunate to escape injury.

Nakajima, who was running fourth, then spun under the safety car, dropping to the tail of the field.

The final portion of the race was uneventful, until di Grassi's late exit. With Glock charging back up to third, behind Filippi, he extends his series lead to eight points with five races remaining.

Bruno Senna finished fourth, ahead of Karun Chandhok, Javier Villa, Sebastien Buemi and Ricardo Risatti. The latter will start tomorrow's reverse grid race from pole.

Pos  Driver         Team                       Time
 1.  G. Pantano     Campos Grand Prix          55:32.531
 2.  L. Filippi     Super Nova International     + 7.962
 3.  T. Glock       iSport International         + 9.681
 4.  B. Senna       Arden International          +13.572
 5.  K. Chandhok    Durango                      +18.393
 6.  J. Villa       Racing Engineering           +19.179
 7.  S. Buemi       ART Grand Prix               +20.436
 8.  R. Risatti     Trident Racing               +25.100
 9.  M. Niemela     BCN Competicion              +25.604
10.  N. Lapierre    DAMS                         +26.156
11.  J. Tahinci     FMS International            +27.113
12.  V. Petrov      Campos Grand Prix            +27.897
13.  K. Nakajima    DAMS                         +66.156
14.  L. Di Grassi   ART Grand Prix               +73.136
15.  A. Negrao      Minardi Piquet Sports        + 1 lap

Retirements          
           
     H. Tung        BCN Competicion              21 laps
     A. Soucek      DPR                          17 laps
     A. Zuber       iSport International         17 laps
     A. Carroll     FMS International            17 laps
     R. Rodriguez   Minardi Piquet Sports        13 laps
     K. Hirate      Trident Racing                3 laps
     B. Garcia      Durango                       1 laps
     A. Zaugg       Arden International           0 laps
     M. CONWAY      Super Nova International      0 laps
     M. MARTINEZ    Racing Engineering            0 laps
     O. PLA         DPR                           0 laps
           
Fastest lap: Pantano, 1:31.442 on lap 28