GP2 Singapore: Giedo van der Garde wins last race of year as DAMS takes teams' title
Giedo van der Garde took his second GP2 Series win of the year by leading from start to finish in the final race of 2012 at Marina Bay in Singapore
Further back, freshly-crowned drivers' champion Davide Valsecchi and team-mate Felipe Nasr secured the DAMS squad's first teams' title in GP2 with fifth and seventh placed finishes - enough to beat rival Lotus.
Polesitter van der Garde leapt away at the start, holding off fellow front-row man Marcus Ericsson of iSport, with series runner-up Luiz Razia (Arden) jumping up to third as Nasr made a poor start, dropping from third to ninth.
The race was interrupted by the safety car on lap nine, as Rene Binder spun his Lazarus machine at the final corner.
His team-mate Sergio Canamasas, running seventh, was also causing trouble: his mechanics worked on his car too close to the start of the formation lap, and a drive-through penalty for this became a black flag.
Even then, he continued racing as his radio wasn't working and he wasn't looking at his pitboard. It took a car problem for him to actually pit, where he was admonished by his team.
At the front, meanwhile, van der Garde stroked it home from the restart, winning comfortably by 1.7s.
"We deserved that," he said. "We started off the season not so good, and we've had the pace but not the luck in the last few races."
Ericsson finished a clear second: "It was a tough race, and Giedo was so quick in the beginning," he said. "I struggled towards the end, maybe I shouldn't have chased him to hard early on because of the safety car."
Third place swapped hands on the final lap, as Racing Engineering's Fabio Leimer scrabbled past a tyre-troubled Razia on the run to Turn 10.
Two laps earlier, they had both straightlined the Turn 10 chicane, so intense was their duel. "I could see his rear tyres were struggling, and I just managed to get past," said Leimer.
Razia just held off Valsecchi for fourth, while Lotus's Esteban Gutierrez, who did brilliantly to nurse his set of supersoft tyres for a race distance, just held off Nasr, who had passed Stefano Coletti for seventh with a handful of laps remaining.
Gutierrez was confirmed as third in points, ahead of Saturday's racewinner winner Max Chilton, who slumped from eighth to 19th on his supersoft rubber.
Johnny Cecotto Jr just missed out on a point after a charging drive from last to ninth, having pitted for supersoft tyres and been given a drive-through for putting Jolyon Palmer into the wall early on.
The unwell James Calado also starred, finishing 10th from 18th despite suffering food poisoning.
And in the eight-year history of GP2, it was the final race in the category for Scuderia Coloni. With Luca Filippi unable to start, Fabio Onidi finished down in 20th.
Results - 21 laps: Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Giedo van der Garde Caterham 46m36.606s 2. Marcus Ericsson iSport + 1.719s 3. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering + 5.684s 4. Luiz Razia Arden + 7.393s 5. Davide Valsecchi DAMS + 7.942s 6. Esteban Gutierrez Lotus + 8.562s 7. Felipe Nasr DAMS + 8.718s 8. Stefano Coletti Rapax + 15.394s 9. Johnny Cecotto Jr Addax + 18.981s 10. James Calado Lotus + 21.964s 11. Rio Haryanto Carlin + 29.223s 12. Nigel Melker Ocean + 38.159s 13. Victor Guerin Ocean + 42.593s 14. Simon Trummer Arden + 43.366s 15. Nathanael Berthon Racing Engineering + 44.482s 16. Julian Leal Trident + 49.242s 17. Jake Rosenzweig Addax + 50.553s 18. Rodolfo Gonzalez Caterham + 1m02.226s 19. Max Chilton Carlin + 1m06.565s 20. Fabio Onidi Coloni + 1m07.175s 21. Ricardo Teixeira Rapax + 1m07.288s Retirements: Stephane Richelmi Trident 19 laps Sergio Canamasas Lazarus 14 laps Rene Binder Lazarus 8 laps Jolyon Palmer iSport 2 laps
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