However, late race shenanigans put paid to that, setting up moments of intrigue as the safety car appeared, first, for Javier Villa’s spin at the Swimming Pool and, almost as soon as the field had been released, for Jason Tahinci's off at Tabac.
Both times, the pace car bunched the field in the order Maldonado, Pantano, Glock - whose strategy had clearly paid off - Filippi, di Grassi - who had been forced to sit through a poor stop - Petrov, Buemi and Antonio Pizzonia.
After three laps behind the initial safety car, Filippi was on a charge and, with Glock’s tyres past their best, the Italian was all over his rival. Thinking he saw his chance coming into the chicane, the Super Nova car locked up, giving Glock the merest of touches and, although both were able to continue, it appeared that Glock's push for second was over.
"I think it was the best that we could get out of the qualifying results," the German sighed, having clocked only the eight fastest lap in qualifying, "At the end, we have to be happy that we finished in the top three, especially after Filippi hit me on the rear left tyre. It’s a good result for the title."
Maldonado was easily able to contain his rivals at the second restart, and was soon rebuilding his commanding lead. Further back, Senna was trying to make up for a very slow stop by passing Kohei Hirate, but he was too far back and there was no chance of points to show for his weekend’s efforts. Sergio Jimenez made a silly move on Borja Garcia as he tried to go inside the Durango car at the hairpin, putting both men were out on the spot, but, fortunately for the leader's nerves, the incident was cleared without recourse to the safety car.
Maldonado was ecstatic at claiming his first win in the series, pumping his fists for joy as he waited for Pantano and Glock to catch up to him on the slow down lap.
"I feel incredibly happy!" the Venezuelan said, "I think we worked very hard for this race, and I’m very happy for my team, for my country, for my sponsors. For us, the championship starts here in Monte Carlo."
