Giedo van der Garde stormed to victory in the closest thing the Dutchman has to a home racethis morning at the fabled Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, leading from lights to flag to head aniSport 1-3 ahead of Roldan Rodriguez and Diego Nunes.
The win was set up at the start when the Dutchman blew past poleman Edoardo Mortara as thelights went out to claim the inside line for turn one and a lead which was never in doubt again.Behind him though was chaos, as Dani Clos ran into Nico Hülkenberg leaving Jérôme d’Ambrosioand Luca Filippi nowhere to go but into the pair.
Pastor Maldonado made a strong start to slot in behind van der Garde and Mortara, and wassoon looking for a way past the Italian: he tried his luck on the outside of turn five but found thegrass instead, spinning across the track and into the wall, forcing Kamui Kobayashi to spin inavoidance, and prompting the safety car out until the track could be cleared.
Race one winner Alvaro Parente was promoted to fourth as a result, but it wasn’t to last: thePortuguese driver’s race ended one lap later in a cloud of smoke, pushing Nunes and Lucas diGrassi up one spot, the latter easily disposing of his compatriot when the race went live beforeclosing in on Mortara.
He got a little too close, however, and one lap later ran over the Italian’s rear wheel into the BusStop, putting both drivers out on the spot and promoting Sergio Perez to fourth, ahead of theDavides Valsecchi and Rigon.
For the remainder of the race the battles to watch were for the minor points places: van derGarde easily rolled out a victory three seconds ahead of Rodriguez, while Nunes had to absorbrace long pressure from Perez to claim his podium finish, and behind them Rigon made aspectacular move on his namesake at the end of the main straight to claim a strong fifth position.
Championship contender Petrov finally found a way by teammate Valsecchi for sixth place tokeep himself mathematically in the title hunt: he goes to Monza 27 points behind Hülkenberg with40 points left to play for over the final two weekends of the season.
Spa-Francorchamps – Race 2
Driver Team
1. Giedo van der Garde iSport International
2. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet GP
3. Diego Nunes iSport International
4. Sergio Perez Telmex Arden International
5. Davide Rigon Trident Racing
6. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Addax Team
7 Karun Chandhok Ocean Racing Technology
8. Davide Valsecchi Barwa Addax Team
9. Michael Herck DPR
10.Javier Villa Super Nova Racing
11.Kamui Kobayashi DAMS
12.Alberto Valerio iSport International
13.Nelson Panciatici Durango
14.Ricardo Teixeira Trident Racing
| 
|