Senna effectively won the race at the start, leaping into the lead as poleman Maldonado was slow away with too much wheelspin. Maldonado just held off Mike Conway into Ste Devote, who then had to defend his third place from Adrian Valles up the hill to Casino Square.
Senna pulled out an impressive lead, and was over 4secs clear when he straight-lined the Swimming Pool chicane on lap 12. Not to be outdone, Maldonado then straight-lined the new chicane a lap later to level the score.
Senna was 6secs clear when he pitted on lap 21, with Maldonado stopping a lap later. The lead was now 4.6secs, but all that was about to be made irrelevant.
Series leader Giorgio Pantano was punted into a spin at Mirabeau by Sebastien Buemi, and he blocked the track for about 30secs. Half the field was stuck behind him, while marshals moved his stricken car, and the leaders got caught up in the mess too.
Senna cleverly passed a whole host of parked cars, but Maldonado followed him through, so the lead was now just under 3secs when racing resumed.
Maldonado got the hammer down, closing the gap completely as the race entered its final stages. With eight laps to go there was less than a second between them, but Senna responded with a blindingly quick lap, which would have put him fourth on the grid, to counter Maldonado's charge and net the extra point for fastest lap.
Senna crossed the line six-tenths ahead of the Venezuelan, who charged back onto his tail on the final lap.
The final place on the podium changed on the final lap. It should have been Conway, but he was punted off by the lapped Javier Villa on the final lap at the new chicane. That gifted Karun Chandhok the place, making it a great day for iSport.
Valles finished fourth, holding off Alvaro Parente in the late stages. Roldan Rodriguez benefited from a clever strategy from his FMS team to take sixth, ahead of Ho-Pin Tung, who also ran a very long first stint.
Conway was classified eighth, and so will start Saturday’s sprint race from reverse grid pole position. That honour would have gone to Jerome d’Ambrosio had the Belgian not allowed himself to be lapped on the final tour by Senna.
Despite his non-finish, Pantano still leads the championship, but by only two points from Senna.
Results to follow.
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