Grosjean wins hectic rain-affected race

Romain Grosjean claimed his maiden GP2 Series feature race win by staying out on slick tyres and passing series leader Giorgio Pantano at Hockenheim on Saturday.

Grosjean, who won the sprint race in Turkey, won by 10 seconds but only hit the front with four laps remaining when a brief but heavy rain shower made the circuit incredibly treacherous. Pantano, who had a championship to think about, elected not to fight him too hard and risk crashing out.

Grosjean made his winning move, having tracked Pantano's every move for the first 35 and a half laps of dry action, at the Mercedes Arena. As the rain fell, some chose to switch to wet tyres, which was a very marginal decision.

This was proved by Javier Villa, who crashed out of third place just a couple of hundred yards from the finish having also elected to stay on dry tyres. He was joined seconds later by Andi Zuber, also on slicks, and joined a graveyard of cars that included long-time third placed runner Sebastien Buemi.

Alvaro Parente finished third, thanks to a sensational last lap, which included him losing the position to Bruno Senna when he ran wide at Spitzkehre, but grabbing it back later around the lap.

Senna, who had survived a massive spin at Mobil as the rain fell, finished fourth and the first of the wet-tyred runners, ahead of Lucas di Grassi (on wets) and Pastor Maldonado, who were neck and neck as they crossed the line.

Andy Soucek and Karun Chandhok (on wets) rounded out the point scorers.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Romain Grosjean ART 58:52.430 2. Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering +10.996 3. Alvaro Parente Super Nova +54.244 4. Bruno Senna iSport +56.654 5. Lucas di Grassi Campos +60.201 6. Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports +60.406 7. Andy Soucek Super Nova +61.764 8. Karun Chandhok iSport +79.413 9. Alberto Valerio Durango +1:07.474 10. Javier Villa Racing Engineering +1 lap 11. Andi Zuber Piquet Sports +1 lap 12. Sakon Yamamoto ART +1 lap 13. Ho-Pin Tung Trident +1 lap 14. Marko Asmer FMS +1 lap 15. Adrian Valles BCN +1 lap 16. Carlos Iaconelli BCN +1 lap 17. Michael Herck DPR +1 lap 18. Roldan Rodriguez FMS +2 laps Retirements Sebastien Buemi Arden 35 laps Mike Conway Trident 35 laps Vitaly Petrov Campos 35 laps Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 35 laps Luca Filippi Arden 33 laps Diego Nunes DPR 33 laps Davide Valsecchi Durango 23 laps Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 0 laps Fastest lap, Pantano 1:24.454 on lap 28

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