• Hungarian Grand Prix - GP2

Maldonado sweeps to GP2 win at dramatic feature race

Pastor Maldonado celebrates victory at the Hungaroring © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Hungarian GP2 round

• Championship:
• GP2 Series

• Drivers:
• Jules Bianchi
• |
• Pastor Maldonado
• |
• Sergio Perez
• |
• Ho-Pin Tung
• |
• Christian Vietoris

Rapax's Pastor Maldonado underlined his position at the top of the GP2 Series with another dominant display at the Hungarian feature race to finish ahead of Christian Vietoris (Racing Engineering) and Sergio Perez (Barwa Addax).

However, Maldonado benefitted from the front row of the grid eliminating itself before the race got underway. iSport's Davide Valsecchi stalled from second on the grid at the start of the formation lap before Adrian Zaugg (Trident), starting from 19th, also stalled and forced another tour circuit. All the stopping and starting took its toll on Sam Bird's Renault engine and the ART driver had to concede his pole position and start from the pit lane.

When the cars got underway properly Maldonado eased ahead of Oliver Turvey (iSport) to take the lead, but as the cars came through the first corner, the race was stopped again due to a big accident. Jules Bianchi (ART) tagged the rear Giacomo Ricci (DPR) and was thrown into a spin across the track towards the oncoming traffic. Ho Pin Tung in the DAMS was unable to avoid the out of control ART and hit Bianchi head on.

The race was red flagged immediately as both drivers were extracted from their cars. Bianchi sustained back injuries and Ho Pin Tung was also taken to hospital as a precaution. Neither will start the sprint race on Sunday and Bianchi could be out for some time.

The race was restarted under the safety car and Maldonado resumed the lead with ease. After the mandatory pit stops he had a 10 second lead and appeared to heading towards a comfortable victory. However, the Hungaroring threw one last curve ball when Liuz Razia mounted the back of Alberto Valerio's (Coloni) car and launched his Rapax towards the tyre barrier.

The race restarted under the safety car but Maldonado was able to use the lapped Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Coloni) as a buffer back to Vietoris. Instead of attacking Maldonado, the Racing Engineering driver came under attack from Perez and Turvey but neither could find a safe place to make a pass stick.

The top four held position to the finish with Giedo van de Garde (Barwa Addax) finishing fifth ahead of Jerome d'Ambrosio (DAMS), Michael Herck (DPR) and Ricci.

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