Giorgio Pantano has claimed his first win of the season in style, leading all the way from start to finish  despite  a  safety  car  period,  storming  his  way  to  the  chequered  flag  ahead  of  Romain Grosjean and Andreas Zuber. When the lights went out the Italian disappeared from pole, while Grosjean made an equally good start to get past a bogged down Adam Carroll and slide inside Zuber into turn one.

Behind them was mayhem as Pastor Maldonado was pushed wide, Sébastien Buemi was tapped into a spin, while Ben Hanley spinning in avoidance behind him. Carroll's poor start pushed him back into the pack as did Bruno Senna's, who soon suffered the added discomfort of losing a piece of his front wing in an accident. As the top three pulled away Karun Chandhok led Vitaly Petrov, Javier Villa, Jérôme D'Ambrosio and Carroll, but with Pantano walking away the battle behind him was at fever pitch, with Zuber all over the back of Grosjean but just unable to find a way past, while Petrov was equally resolute in  defence  from  a  fast  charging  Villa. 

With  the  competition  on  a  knife  edge,  it  was  clear  that pitstops were going to be crucial. Villa had a lucky escape during his stop: as he was released by his team Maldonado came from nowhere and cut straight across the Spaniard's front, forcing an emergency stop before he could get away again.

The delay was enough that he was unable to jump Petrov, while the Venezuelan came  out  on  the  tail  of  the  D'Ambrosio  /  Buemi  /  Carroll  battle,  with  all  four  drivers  swapping position  all  over  the  track  until  the  Belgian  and  Maldonado  had  to  finally  return  to  the  pits  and retirement. When  Alberto  Valerio  spun  and  stalled  in  the  middle  of  the  long,  fast  turn  eight  there  was  no option but to bring out the safety car, giving the lead trio the chance to come in for their stops, returning in the same order to line up ahead of the rest of the field. When the safety car peeled off it was a straight sprint to the finish line, with just five laps remaining in the race.

Buemi and Villa pushed each other all over the track, with the Swiss driver pulling Carroll through with him as the Spaniard ran wide to avoid a backmarker, but all eyes were on the battle at the front of the field. It was a sprint that was easily controlled by Pantano, who crossed the line 1.7 seconds ahead of Grosjean  and  Zuber,  who  was  delayed  enough  by  backmarkers  at  the  restart  to  deny  him  the attack  he  had  been  waiting  all  race  to  perform,  but  picked  up  the  fastest  lap  for  his  efforts.

Chandhok opened his points account with a fine fourth place drive, ahead of Petrov, Buemi, Villa and Carroll, with the Spaniard taking seventh place at the end of the back straight on the last lap, in a move that must have had the Ulsterman flashing back to the same place two years ago when Lewis Hamilton made the exact same move. The  win  pushed  Pantano  into  a  strong  early  lead  in  the  championship  on  21  points,  ahead  of Zuber  on  13  and  Grosjean  on  12,  with  the  trio  toasting  their  good  fortune  on  the  podium  with champagne and thinking of the battle to come tomorrow.