Giorgio Pantano gave Campos Grand Prix its first win in the GP2 Series after a race of incident interrupted for an hour by a serious accident involving Ernesto Viso and Michael Ammermuller.
Pantano was third at the restart but, crucially, the first of those to have made their compulsory tyre stops after the majority of the field had dived for the pits when the safety car came out for Viso's crash.
The Venezuelan had lined up 18th on his return to the series with Racing Engineering, and was attempting to make up early ground when he was launched over the back of Ammermuller's ART Grand Prix car and, after being pitched on its end, hit the retaining wall close to the cockpit. The car finally came to rest on the far side of the barrier, but only after grinding along the top of it for some distance. Viso, however, is reported to have escaped with little more than a broken arm and concussion, while Ammermuller was unharmed.
The field circled for two laps behind the safety car before the red flag was shown to better facilitate the extraction and transportation of the injured Viso, and remained stationary on the grid for the best part of an hour before being given the green light to resume over the rest of the scheduled distance.
Taking the first lap behind the pace car, Kohei Hirate led Karun Chandhok and Pantano, but the Italian was soon to the fore after the Japanese driver was called for a drive-thru' and Chandhok beached himself in the gravel before making his mandatory stop. From there, Pantano was never headed, his pace only slackening off as his tyres began to lose effectiveness in the closing stages.
"I believe we can fight for the championship, and the team championship also," the Italian enthused, "We were just unlucky before. Adrian Campos is a really serious man, and I really like to work with him, he's nice, a gentleman, and this is what made me sign for them."
