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Di Grassi wins the Macau GP

Brazilian Lucas di Grassi won a thrilling Macau Grand Prix on Sunday - snatching the lead from rival Robert Kubica with just two laps to go to take the chequered flag 0.6 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger

The battle for victory was blown wide open at the start when pole position man Loic Duval, who had dominated the qualifying race on Saturday, was adjudged to have jumped the start when his car moved forwards with the lights still red.

Duval managed to keep the lead at the start and stretched out an impressive 2.2 seconds lead over the first lap. After opening up his advantage by a further one second a lap, the Race Stewards decided to hand him a drive-through penalty. He pitted on lap six and dropped well down the order.

Duval's penalty meant that the fight for the lead was left between di Grassi and Kubica, who were locked in a thrilling battle for the entire race. Di Grassi had moved to the head of their battle on lap two, with a brave move around the outside at Lisboa, but lost what was then the lead on lap 10 when Kubica dived down the inside at the same corner after getting a good slipstream.

Kubica seemed set for victory but the Safety Car was called out at the end of that lap after Danny Watts, Charlie Kimball and Dan Clarke were involved in a collision at Faraway that left cars in a dangerous position.

The Safety Car pulled in at the start of lap 14 and di Grassi seized the opportunity to slice past Kubica on the run into Mandarin. He then stayed ahead, despite intense pressure from Kubica, to take the victory.

German Sebastian Vettel took third place, ahead of TOM'S duo Joao Paolo de Oliveira and Kazuki Nakajima. Duval recovered to finish sixth.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver               Make-Engine              Time
 1.  Lucas Di Grassi      Dallara Mercedes-HWA     40:49.730
 2.  Robert Kubica        Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB   +   0.659
 3.  Sebastian Vettel     Dallara Mercedes-HWA     +   3.924
 4.  Joao P De Oliveira   Dallara Toyota-Tom's     +   7.003
 5.  Kazuki Nakajima      Dallara Toyota-Tom's     +   8.619
 6.  Loic Duval           Dallara Mercedes-HWA     +   8.705
 7.  Christian Bakkerud   Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB   +  11.185
 8.  Paolo Montin         Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB   +  12.490
 9.  Romain Grosjean      Dallara Opel-Spiess      +  13.007
10.  Franck Perera        Dallara Opel-Spiess      +  13.290
11.  Guillaume Moreau     Dallara Opel-Spiess      +  13.890
12.  Fabio Carbone        SLC Opel-Spiess          +  16.445
13.  Karl Reindler        Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB   +  17.334
14.  Mike Conway          Dallara Mercedes-HWA     +  17.808
15.  Michael Ho           Dallara Toyota-Tom's     +  26.120
16.  Rodolfo Avila        Dallara Mercedes HWA     +  28.615
17.  Daisuke Ikeda        Dallara Toyota-Tom's     +  1 Lap
18.  Lei Kit Meng         Dallara Opel-Spiess      +  1 Lap
19.  Jo Merszei           Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB   +  1 Lap
20.  Steven Kane          Lola Honda-Mugen/NB      +  2 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Driver               Make-Engine               On lap
     Cheong Lou Meng      Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB     10
     Dan Clarke           Dallara Opel-Spiess         9
     Charlie Kimball      Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB      9
     Danny Watts          Dallara Toyota-Tom's        9
     Stephen Jelley       Dallara Opel-Spiess         8
     Naoki Yokomizo       Dallara Nissan-Tomei        4
     Fillip Salaquarda    Dallara Opel-Spiess         3
     Kohei Hirate         Dallara Opel-Spiess         1
     Bruno Senna          Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB      1

Fastest lap: Duval, 2:11.929 on lap 9

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