Surprisingly, given that
Bridgestone had supplied its hard compound rubber for the weekend, the mandatory pit-stops began on the very same lap, with Bruno Senna - who had failed to set a qualifying lap and duly started well down the order - the first to take advantage of new tyres. He was soon followed by both Pantano and the closely-following Nicolas Lapierre, who pitted, exited and continued racing together.
The leaders did not stop for several more laps, Glock the first of the top three to do so on lap eleven. Conway and Zuber followed over the next two tours, leaving Carroll out front for the first time since returning to the series with FMSI in France. With Vitaly Petrov providing a buffer back to the rejoined Zuber - who had exited the pits just ahead of Conway - Carroll pressed on, extending his advantage to around 32 seconds by lap 16 - the sort of gap that could make a difference to the outcome of the race.
The podium was about to be shaped by another incident, however, for Glock re-appeared on pit-lane, stopping in the vacant space ahead of the first garage. The iSport team seemed not to have noticed the German's arrival, and it was some time - and some frantic radio conversation later - that someone brought a slave battery to the stricken car. The sidepod came off, suggesting electrical problems, and it was some time before Glock was moving again, his bid for points already over.
The iSport car was still stationary in the same spot when Carroll made his pit-stop on lap 17, rejoining in third but only narrowly failing to usurp Conway for second as the Super Nova car followed Zuber past pit-exit with the FMSI driver approaching. It mattered little, however, for, in his haste to maintain the advantage he had built up, Carroll failed to hit the pit speed limiter in time and was adjudged to have come in too fast. The ensuing drive-thru' penalty, called five laps later, ended his podium aspirations by dropping the Briton to sixth.
