Villa takes second 2007 win in sprint

Villa, who had won his first race at Magny-Cours for Racing Engineering last month, made a superb start and a stellar opening lap meant he was 2.4 seconds ahead of his pursuers, led by Arden's Adrian Zaugg.

Trident duo Kohei Hirate and Pastor Maldonado were next up, ahead of Kazuki Nakajima (DAMS), Lucas di Grassi (ART), Giorgio Pantano (Campos) and series leader Timo Glock (iSport).

Pantano attacked di Grassi into the Michelin-Kurve, clanging into his sidepod. It sent di Grassi off over the kerbs, and title rival Glock took full advantage by passing them both. The collision also caused those behind to trip over themselves, the worst affected being Nicolas Lapierre, who ran out of room on the run to the NGK chicane and clipped wheels with Ernesto Viso, causing him to spin out.

Villa opened his lead to over five seconds when Zaugg locked up at the Dunlop hairpin. The close-following Hirate saw his chance and dived inside him. The faintest of collisions saw Zaugg sent into the gravel, where he stayed.

Nakajima had already passed Maldonado by this point, with an excellent lunge inside him at Turn 1. He then set his sights on Hirate, and attacked with all his might. With four laps to go, Nakajima locked up and ran wide, but caught up with Hirate again, attempting an audacious around-the-outside move through turns one and two, but just ran out of room.

Hirate held on for best-ever GP2 result, but finished 3.5 seconds behind a slowing Villa - whose biggest scare of the race came when he straight-lined the chicane with only a couple of laps remaining.

Maldonado finished fourth, ahead of a subdued Glock, di Grassi, Pantano and Viso.

Glock now leads di Grassi by seven points in the title race.

Classified:

Pos  Driver     Team                      Time
 1.  Villa      Racing Engineering        41:36.640
 2.  Hirate     Trident Racing            +   3.589
 3.  Nakajima   DAMS                      +   4.056
 4.  Maldonado  Trident Racing            +   7.710
 5.  Glock      iSport International      +   9.301
 6.  Di Grassi  ART Grand Prix            +  10.508
 7.  Pantano    Campos Grand Prix         +  14.375
 8.  Viso       Racing Engineering        +  19.401
 9.  Rodriguez  Minardi Piquet Sports     +  21.272
10.  Negrao     Minardi Piquet Sports     +  22.211
11.  Yamamoto   BCN Competicion           +  27.499
12.  Garcia     Durango                   +  30.170
13.  Soucek     DPR                       +  30.585
14.  Carroll    Petrol Ofisi FMS          +  31.254
15.  Conway     Super Nova International  +  31.285
16.  Chandhok   Durango                   +  41.090
17.  Petrov     Campos Grand Prix         +  42.296
18.  Bakkerud   DPR                       +  56.390
19.  Tahinci    Petrol Ofisi FMS          +  57.493
20.  Buemi      ART Grand Prix            +1:29.820
21.  Zuber      iSport                    +1:36.516
22.  Tung       BCN Competicion           +  3 laps

Not Classified:

     Driver     Team                     Laps
     Zaugg      Arden International       15
     Filippi    Super Nova International   9
     Senna      Arden International        1
     Lapierre   DAMS                       0