Romain  Grosjean  claimed  his  first  win  of  the  season  today  after  pressuring  early  leader  Vitaly Petrov  all  through  the  first  half  of  race  two  in  Istanbul, taking the lead and walking away in the latter stages for a dominant victory ahead of Petrov and Sébastien Buemi. While  the  French  driver  celebrated  on the podium the sympathy of everyone in the pitlane was with Bruno Senna, who drove an incredible race to move up from fifteenth on the grid to have a certain points finish destroyed when he struck a stray dog which had somehow found its way onto the track, breaking his right front suspension and immediately retiring from sixth place.

At the start Petrov made a storming start from fourth to claim the top spot into the first turn, while Grosjean  slightly  pushed  Karun  Chandhok  into  polesitter  Adam  Carroll,  allowing  Buemi  and Javier Villa to line up behind the Russian driver but ahead of the Frenchman as they tore up the hill. Behind them however was mayhem, and when the dust settled eight drivers were out on the spot, with the safety car immediately coming out. At  the  restart  Grosjean  wasted  no  time  in  getting  by  Villa,  who  was  also  passed  by  teammate Giorgio Pantano a few corners later.

The order was shaking out all through the field as the drivers made up for the lack of overtaking yesterday by attacking all over the circuit, although Chandhok and Villa took it a little too far and an inevitable contact put the pair into spins which would delete any chance they had of scoring in the race. Senna,  in  particular,  looked  unstoppable  as  he  set  a  string  of  fastest  laps  to  move  up  into  the points paying positions.

The Brazilian was in sixth position and looking certain of more on lap 10 when he struck the dog coming into the final complex: he limped back to the pits before storming away, clearly fuming at the situation he found himself in. Just one lap later Grosjean's race long pressure finally paid dividends as he slide inside Petrov at the end of the back straight to claim a lead which he would never look like relinquishing. When another dog ran on track the safety car had to be brought back out, compacting the field for the  final  run  to  the  flag,  but  Grosjean  was  imperious  at  the  restart  and  just  disappeared,  while Petrov's  mirrors  were  full  of  Buemi's  Arden  for  the  remainder  of  the  race. 

And  while  the  order further back was still swapping lap after lap, up front the top three were followed across the line by Pantano, Mike Conway and Ben Hanley, the two Britons scoring their first points of the season after staying out of trouble and keeping their heads while those around them were losing theirs. Pantano's  fourth  place  was  enough  to  maintain  his  lead  in  the  championship  with  24,  with Grosjean moving up to second with 19 points ahead of Buemi on 14 and Andreas Zuber with 13 points,  setting  up  an  intriguing  battle  to  come  in  Monaco.  Racing  Engineering  is  leading  the Teams’ Championship ahead of ART Grand Prix, Trust Team Arden and iSport International.