Kobayashi wins as Grosjean takes title

Front row starters Karun Chandhok and Diego Nunes collided at the first corner of the opening lap causing chaos behind them. Through the sand cloud stormed Grosjean to lead from eighth on the grid!

But he was out-dragged by Vitaly Petrov, who started 10th, into Turn 3.

But Grosjean was on a charge, and he took the lead back into the final corner. A lap later he was almost two seconds to the good and seemed to have the race in his pocket. As Petrov, Kobayashi, Adrian Valles and Sebastien Buemi fought a great battle for second, the ART man pulled further away.

However, at around the half distance mark his pace slowed dramatically, and he was easily caught and passed by Kobayashi, who had come out on top of the four-car fight. Grosjean appeared to be in serious brake trouble and pulled into the pits to retire.

Petrov was the only man who could keep the title fight alive, but he needed to score more than four points. He was on course for this until Buemi pulled a great move into Turn 1 to take second. Third was not enough for the Russian.

Hiroki Yoshimoto took fourth place after Valles retired. Harald Schlegelmilch had his best run of the season to take fifth, while the final point went to Durango's Davide Valsecchi.

Classified:

Pos  Driver           Team                      Time
 1.  Kobayashi        DAMS                      40:59.270
 2.  Buemi            Trust Team Arden           + 0.861
 3.  Petrov           Campos Team                + 6.526
 4.  Yoshimoto        Qi-Meritus Mahara          + 9.127
 5.  Schleghelmilch   Trident Racing             + 15.801
 6.  Valsecchi        Durango                    + 17.016
 7.  Tung             Trident Racing             + 20.788
 8.  Buurman          Trust Team Arden           + 21.543
 9.  Jelley           ART Grand Prix             + 22.669
10.  Hanley           Campos Team                + 28.217
11.  Filippi          Qi-Meritus Mahara          + 29.337
12.  D'ambrosio       DAMS                       + 29.406
13.  Tahinci          BCN Competicion            + 36.450
14.  Herck            FMS International          + 39.022
15.  Pavlovic         BCN Competicion            + 49.735
16.  Ebrahim          DPR                        + 99.993
17.  Valerio          Durango                    + 1 lap

Not classified:

     Driver       Team                     Laps
     Bonanomi     Piquet Sports              19
     Grosjean     ART Grand Prix             17
     Chandhok     iSport International       11
     Valles       FMS International          7
     Bakkerud     Super Nova Racing          3
     Puglisi      Piquet Sports              1
     Nunes        DPR                        1
     Fauzy        Super Nova Racing          0
     Senna        iSport International       0


Fastest lap: Buemi, 1:45.455 on lap 19