Pastor Maldonado has solidified his lead in the championship with another exhibition drive to claim his third victory of the season ahead of title rival Sergio Perez and Charles Pic, with the win set up by a storming start as the lights went out to lead his rivals all race long.

Polesitter Pic has the best opportunity to slow down the Maldonado locomotive, but a poor getaway handed the Venezuelan the lead with Perez squeezing past Oliver Turvey for second place into turn one. Behind them chaos reigned as Christian Vietoris ran over the right rear of series returnee Romain Grosjean, slowing both drivers, and the battle between Adrian Zaugg and Dani Clos was settled at the back of the circuit in the Spaniard’s favour as his rival ran out of road.

One lap later Pic was making up for his poor start with a strong move on Turvey to claim P3, with the Englishman able to hold on ahead of Clos but the positions behind them changing lap by lap in the opening stages as Jules Bianchi clawed his way up from P9 on the grid to pass Marcus Ericsson, Giedo van der Garde, Luiz Razia and Clos before pitting early in hope of more in clear air.

Back at the front Perez was all over Maldonado but just couldn’t find a way through as the remainder of the field made their stops: the Mexican had to wait until lap 13 for a clear track in front of him but then came in one lap later only to re-emerge on his rivals rear wing. Two laps later Sam Bird, who had made his way up to P10 from the rear of the grid, pushed just too hard to get past van der Garde, finding his rivals sidepod instead and spinning the Dutchman around in a move that would see the Englishman penalised with a drive through shortly after.

Perez was unable to do anything about his rival on his second set and had to make do with P2 behind Maldonado, coming home almost 4 seconds behind his rival but 9 ahead of Pic, who survived a late race attack from Clos to hold on for third place. Bianchi showed his pace by setting the fastest lap on his final tour for fifth place with Ericsson following him home, while Zaugg made a late lunge to sneak by Turvey with a few laps to go for seventh: the Briton just held on for tomorrow’s pole ahead of Michael Herck and Luca Filippi.

Maldonado’s win extends his lead in the championship to 24 points over Dani Clos on 42 and Perez on 38, with Bianchi two behind the Frenchman, with van der Garde (27), Pic (23), Bird (22) and Razia (20) just behind: the sprint race will give the Venezuelan’s rivals a chance to close the gap in the title race tomorrow morning

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

1 15 P. MALDONADO Rapax 38 54:07.807   192.660 1:23.952 24 2 4 S. PEREZ Barwa Addax Team 38 54:11.673 3.866  192.431 1:23.895 30 3 16 C. PIC Arden International 38 54:20.230 12.423 8.557 191.926 1:24.117 19 4 7 D. CLOS Racing Engineering 38 54:20.707 12.900 0.477 191.898 1:23.580 31 5 1 J. BIANCHI ART Grand Prix 38 54:30.982 23.175 10.275 191.295 1:23.527 37 6 6 M. ERICSSON Super Nova Racing 38 54:34.206 26.399 3.224 191.106 1:24.462 30 7 25 A. ZAUGG Trident Racing 38 54:46.401 38.594 12.195 190.397 1:24.175 37 8 9 O. TURVEY iSport International 38 54:50.639 42.832 4.238 190.152 1:24.637 34 9 26 M. HERCK DPR 38 54:53.100 45.293 2.461 190.010 1:24.552 14 10 5 L. FILIPPI Super Nova Racing 38 54:53.194 45.387 0.094 190.004 1:24.449 25 11 20 A. VALERIO Scuderia Coloni 38 54:55.085 47.278 1.891 189.895 1:24.392 21 12 3 G. VAN DER GARDE Barwa Addax Team 38 54:56.590 48.783 1.505 189.809 1:24.660 26 13 24 J. CECOTTO Trident Racing 38 54:59.915 52.108 3.325 189.617 1:24.278 25 14 2 S. BIRD ART Grand Prix 38 55:00.792 52.985 0.877 189.567 1:23.822 30 15 21 V. ARABADZHIEV Scuderia Coloni 38 55:10.652 62.845 9.860 189.002 1:24.319 37 16 27 G. RICCI DPR 37 53:30.911 DNF  189.745 1:24.657 29 17 10 D. VALSECCHI iSport International 37 54:22.263 1 LAP 51.352 186.758 1:24.058 30 18 17 R. GONZALEZ Arden International 37 55:04.292 1 LAP 42.029 184.383 1:24.761 18 19 18 M. CHILTON Ocean Racing Technology 36 54:15.211 2 LAPS 1 LAP 182.105 1:24.881 29 20 11 R. GROSJEAN Dams 35 54:37.319 3 LAPS 1 LAP 175.852 1:23.785 15 21 19 F. LEIMER Ocean Racing Technology 34 49:49.173 DNF  187.295 1:24.957 18 NC 12 H. TUNG Dams 9 15:43.515 DNF  157.069 1:24.860 5 NC 14 L. RAZIA Rapax 4 5:58.612 DNF  183.667 1:26.591 4 NC 8 C. VIETORIS Racing Engineering 0  DNF