Jules Bianchi, the only man who could battle with yesterdays feature race winner Grosjean for top honours, (Grosjean dominates) had a decent start but the slow starting pole man, Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy, tried to make up for his poor getaway by making a shocking decision to brake ridiculously late, locking up in the process and sliding into the back of the very unfortunate Frenchman, damaging his rear wing and suspension, therefore ending the Lotus ART drivers race and title dreams in an instant. This crash also eliminated Stefano Coletti.
So at the end of lap 1 the top 10 order was Dani Clos, Fabio Leimer, Giedo Van Der Garde, Romain Grosjean, Esteban Gutierrez, Rodolfo Gonzalez, Michael Herck, Marcus Ericsson, Pal Varhaug and Oliver Turvey.
Swede Ericsson made a good pass on Herck and set about hounding Venazuelan Gonzalez straight away. The Isport driver then tried a pass on Gonzalez round the ouside of turn1, in doing so he ran wide and fell behind Herck again and into clutches of the waiting Varhaug.
First to break the 1'29 mark was 4th place Grosjean, he was followed next lap by Gutierrez who took over the fastest lap honours and provisional extra point, only for Grosjean to re-take the honour next lap.
Within 2 laps of Ericsson running wide at turn 1 he was back up behind Herck, who was in his own battle, just 0.1s behind gonzalez. Gonzalez at this point was lapping much slower than leaders.
With 8 laps down Grosjean turned up heat on Van Der Garde for final podium position en route to setting another fastest lap. With these 2 battling Mexican Gutierrez was able to take advantage closing up on to the back Grosjean, now making it a 3 way battle for 3rd.
Mid race Swede Ericsson had some kind of incident unseen by the cameras which dropped him down to the back of the field in to 21st.
At the front it was a very stable gap between Clos and Leimer with the Spaniard leading by 8 tenths. 4 seconds down road the battle for 3rd stil raged on.
The black and orange flag came out for Julian Leal after 15laps forcing him to come in to change his nosebox.
Further down the in the pack Sam Bird, recovering from yesterdays DNF, managed to squeeze past Johnny Cecotto, only for Cecotto, who will be lucky to escape punishment from the officials, to unceremoniously drive into the back of the Englishman pushing him off into gravel at turn 1 ending both their races. This was to be the end of a promising weekend for Bird, finishing with no points, after being strong in friday testing. See article: Bird flies in GP2 Asia morning test.
It was status quo at front with no ground being given or taken, but with just 3 to go Leimer closed the gap on Clos by 0.3s in 1 lap bringing it down to 0.6s and possibly setting up a grandstand finish. But next lap Clos responded extending it to just over 1s, releasing the pressure.
In the dying laps Gutierez made a strong move on Grosjean for 4th at the newly revised Variante Alta chicane resulting in Grosjean going over grass but still holding his position. It is believed the officials will look at this incident after the race as it appeared Gutierrez had made a sucessful move before Groesjean decided to bail out and shoot cross the grass.
As the chequered flag fell on the GP2 Asia series it was Dani Clos that took his first GP2 Asia victory ahead of Fabio Leimer and Giedo Van Der Garde who completed the podium.
1. Dani Clos - Racing Engineering
2. Fabio Leimer - Rapax +0.93
3. Giedo Van Der Garde - Barwa Addax +4.00
4. Romain Grosjean - DAMS 7.82
5. Esteban Gutierrez - Lotus ART +8.36
6. Michael Herck - Scuderia Coloni +15.31
7. Pal Varhaug - Dams +27.41
8. Oliver Turvey - Ocean Racing Technology +29.29
9. Josef Kral - Arden International +29.72
10. Luca Filippi - Scuderia Coloni +30.13
11. Charles Pic - Barwa Addax Team +32.50
12. Andrea Caldarelli - Ocean Racing Technology +36.00
13. Nathanael Berthon - Racing Engineering +36.89
14. Luiz Razia - Team Air Asia +38.99
15. Max Chilton - Carlin +39.81
16. Marcus Ericsson - Isport International +40.19
17. Davide Valsecchi - Team Air Asia +42.10
18. Julian Leal - Rapax 1'05.46
19. Johnny Cecotto - Super Nova Racing +1 lap
20. Mikhail Aleshin - Carlin +1 lap
21. Sam Bird - Isport International +5 laps
22. Rodolfo Gonzalez - Trident Racing +11 laps
23. Jolyon Palmer - Arden International DNF
24. Stefano Coletti - Trident Racing DNF
25. Jules Bianchi - Lotus ART DNF
26. Fairuz Fauzy - Super Nova Racing DNF
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