Although Chandhok started from pole, di Grassi made a rocket start from fourth on the grid and drove around the outside of the front row to take a commanding early lead.
But after two laps in front, di Grassi appeared to lose pace on the straights - possibly due to a recurrence of the gearbox problem that cost him fifth gear in yesterday's race. Chandhok drafted past him at the Parabolika, but di Grassi responded at the Spitzkehre and retook the lead.
Chandhok wasn't to be denied, however, and got him back again with a brave move at the kink before the Mercedes Arena. Zuber wasted little time in doing likewise, passing di Grassi at the same place a lap later.
Zuber closed the gap to Chandhok, but despite 19 laps of pressure, the Indian didn't look like cracking under pressure and clinched his first win of the year.
In fact, Bruno Senna came closer to Zuber than he was to Chandhok at the finish, Senna having charged past Alvaro Parente at the Spitzkehre on lap four.
It was also good news for Bruno in the championship: series leader Giorgio Pantano made a brilliant start, gaining two places at the start and another two at the hairpin on the opening lap. But his race was ended by broken steering after a collision with Andy Soucek at Spitzkehre on lap three.
"It was only the lightest of touches, I don't know why it broke," shrugged the Italian.
Di Grassi's race was ruined by an outrageous punt from behind by Pastor Maldonado at Spitzkehre, sending him spinning off the track at high speed.
That promoted Senna to third, and he spent the rest of the race catching Zuber. Romain Grosjean finished fourth after an awful first lap, which saw him drop as low as 10th. Javier Villa finished fifth, ahead of Parente.
Senna has closed the gap to Pantano in the championship to 15 points with four race weekends remaining.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Karun Chandhok iSport International 38:27.955 2. Andreas Zuber Piquet Sports + 0.702 3. Bruno Senna iSport International + 1.274 4. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix + 4.947 5. Javier Villa Racing Engineering + 10.893 6. Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing + 16.383 7. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing + 17.423 8. Sebastien Buemi Trust Team Arden + 18.364 9. Mike Conway Trident Racing + 21.808 10. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS + 22.554 11. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS + 27.503 12. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Campos Team + 28.832 13. Marko Asmer FMS International + 34.160 14. Davide Valsecchi Durango + 34.854 15. Alberto Valerio Durango + 35.468 16. Roldan Rodriguez FMS International + 36.769 17. Carlos Iaconelli BCN Competicion + 41.765 18. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports + 46.526 19. Andy Soucek Super Nova Racing + 1 lap 20. Diego Nunes DPR + 1 lap Retirements:Driver Team Laps Sakon Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 20 Adrian Valles BCN Competicion 9 Lucas Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 7 Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 2 Michael Herck DPR 0 Luca Filippi Trust Team Arden 0
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