Maldonado crushes competition in feature race

Venezuelan claims third win of the season

Pastor Maldonado made light work of collecting his third victory of the season in today’s feature race in Silverstone, storming off into the distance when the lights went out, and leaving Jules Bianchi and Dani Clos in his wake.

The Frenchman’s chance of victory was over at the start when a slow getaway handed Maldonado a lead which, pitstops notwithstanding, he never relinquished, with Clos slotting in behind the pair. Oliver Turvey pushed across to protect himself after a less than optimal start, but countryman Sam Bird was through and gone before he got there, with Giedo van der Garde also gaining from Charles Pic’s startline woes.

Pic had more misfortune a lap later when a hard charging Sergio Perez just caught the rear of his car, tapping the Frenchman into a spin and down to 11th position, with series returnee Luca Filippi dropping to last place after a misjudgement from Michael Herck damaged the Italian’s tyres and forced him into an early stop.

Christian Vietoris took advantage of his qualifying pace by also stopping early and putting together a string of quick laps in clear air before the rest of field came in, promoting the German to fifth place when the stops shook out.

But back at the front Maldonado was imperious, untouchable as he led the field home, ten seconds to the good over Bianchi, who had a similar margin over Clos as the chequered flag dropped: the Spaniard held on against strong pressure throughout the second half of the race from Bird to claim another podium finish.

Perez was rewarded for his boundless pressure after the stops to claim fifth place from Vietoris with 2 laps remaining, while Giedo van der Garde was possibly the unluckiest driver of the day, holding onto seventh place until a few corners from the end when he ran over some carbon and couldn’t turn in, waving iSport duo Davide Valsecchi and Oliver Turvey through for the final points positions and the front row for tomorrow’s sprint race.

But with the crowd beneath the podium holding three fingers up to the podium it was clear that championship leader Maldonado was the apple of his team’s eye, stretching out his points lead even further as his rivals had no answer for the Venezuelan’s speed today.

POS /NO /DRIVERS /TEAMS LAPS /TIME /GAP /INT. /KPH /BEST /LAP

1 15 P. MALDONADO Rapax 29 50:21.479   203.424 1:41.663 23 2 1 J. BIANCHI ART Grand Prix 29 50:31.604 10.125  202.744 1:41.918 27 3 7 D. CLOS Racing Engineering 29 50:41.028 19.549 9.424 202.116 1:42.476 14 4 2 S. BIRD ART Grand Prix 29 50:42.458 20.979 1.430 202.021 1:42.621 23 5 4 S. PEREZ Barwa Addax Team 29 50:53.518 32.039 11.060 201.289 1:42.435 12 6 8 C. VIETORIS Racing Engineering 29 50:57.218 35.739 3.700 201.046 1:42.319 9 7 10 D. VALSECCHI iSport International 29 50:59.181 37.702 1.963 200.917 1:43.313 9 8 9 O. TURVEY iSport International 29 51:00.232 38.753 1.051 200.848 1:43.302 22 9 3 G. VAN DER GARDE Barwa Addax Team 29 51:00.566 39.087 0.334 200.826 1:43.282 9 10 16 C. PIC Arden International 29 51:01.324 39.845 0.758 200.776 1:43.216 24 11 11 J. D'AMBROSIO Dams 29 51:01.580 40.101 0.256 200.759 1:42.711 21 12 6 M. ERICSSON Super Nova Racing 29 51:15.428 53.949 13.848 199.855 1:43.249 11 13 27 G. RICCI DPR 29 51:16.385 54.906 0.957 199.793 1:43.099 25 14 20 A. VALERIO Scuderia Coloni 29 51:23.611 62.132 7.226 199.325 1:43.432 23 15 25 A. ZAUGG Trident Racing 29 51:33.452 71.973 9.841 198.691 1:44.113 13 16 17 R. GONZALEZ Arden International 29 51:34.304 72.825 0.852 198.636 1:44.099 22 17 19 F. LEIMER Ocean Racing Technology 29 51:35.693 74.214 1.389 198.547 1:43.592 13 18 24 J. CECOTTO Trident Racing 29 51:37.592 76.113 1.899 198.425 1:44.113 28 19 18 M. CHILTON Ocean Racing Technology 29 51:39.284 77.805 1.692 198.317 1:43.954 17 20 5 L. FILIPPI Super Nova Racing 29 51:55.131 93.652 15.847 197.308 1:42.080 27 21 21 V. ARABADZHIEV Scuderia Coloni 29 51:55.722 94.243 0.591 197.271 1:44.469 17 22 26 M. HERCK DPR 28 50:39.100 1 LAP 1 LAP 195.266 1:43.472 14

NC 14 L. RAZIA Rapax 18 32:06.252 DNF  197.979 1:42.498 16 NC 12 H. TUNG Dams 12 23:02.080 DNF  183.862 1:43.716 10