The Portuguese driver stormed away at the start as pole sitter Pastor Maldonado bogged down on the grid and then was never headed, withstanding a brief attack in the opening laps from Zuber and then keeping his head at an early stop for the entire field as a result of a safety car tore-emerge ahead of and Senna and stay there. Maldonado’s slow start caused problems further back, contracting the grid into turn one where Christian Bakkerud collected Luca Filippi, and then Ben Hanley at the same spot one lap later, which caused Roldan Rodriguez and Ho-Pin Tung to come together behind them. With Mike Conway also stopped on the front straight, there was no other option but to bring out the safety car.
The remainder of the field tore into the pits for their stops, with Parente easing out ahead of Senna, who leapfrogged Zuber for second on track ahead of Giorgio Pantano, Adrian Valles, Vitaly Petrov and Sébastien Buemi. Romain Grosjean was not giving up without a fight, however, and tore through the field as though they weren’t there, with Maldonado also pushing hard to make up for his poor start as he fought from the back of the field.
Unfortunately familiarity with the circuit meant that for almost every lunge from behind a counter move from in front maintained the status quo throughout the race, meaning that the fierce fights throughout the field gave little reward to the drivers behind. And with unprecedented levels of reliability there were no gifts for anyone today.
Nevertheless there was no doubt that Parente deserved his maiden win after a gritty display of determination to hold on from Senna and Zuber, with Pantano holding on ahead of Grosjean, Petrov, Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi, with Parente claiming the final point for fastest lap after Valles, though faster, failed to finish in the Top 10.
Barcelona – Feature Race
1 Alvaro Parente Super Nova Racing 2 Bruno Senna iSport International 3 Andrea Zuber Piquet Sports 4 Giorgio Pantano Racing Engineering 5 Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 6 Vitaly Petrov Barwa international Campos Team 7 Sébastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 8 Kamui Kobayashi Dams 9 KarunChandhok iSport International 10 Davide Valsecchi Durango 11 Luca Filippi ART Grand Prix 12 Pastor Maldonado Piquet Sports 13 Alberto Valerio Durango 14 Javier Villa Racing Engineering 15 Diego Nunes DPR 16 Giacomo Ricci DPR 17 Paolo Maria Nocera BCN Competicion 18 AdrianValles Fisichella Motor Sport International
Not Classified
Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing Yelmer Buurman Trust Team Arden Ben Hanley Barwa International Campos Team Jérôme d’Ambrosio Dams Roldan Rodriguez Fisichella Motor Sport international Ho Pin Tung Trident Racing Mike Conway Trident Racing MilosPavlovic BCN Competicion
