Petrov had not quite made it back to the head of the pack when the second safety car period - facing an entirely different safety car - was brought about by Diego Nunes slamming his DPR entry into the tyre barrier marking the exit of the final corner. Although the Brazilian appeared unhurt in the cockpit of a machine missing its left front corner, the track staff appeared more concerned about clearing up the dirt and spilled tyres than to getting him to safety. It was eventually left to a member of the GP2 team to run across the start-finish straight to help Nunes re-attach his steering wheel and make it to the sanctuary of the pit-lane.
The clear-up operation this time took only five laps, with both Jelley and Bonanomi taking the opportunity to pit for their obligatory tyre change. Senna and Yoshimoto remained ahead of the pack, however, and both vaulted away from Petrov as soon as the safety car made its slow way back into the pits. The Russian, meanwhile, had concentrated on holding Filippi and Valles at bay before flooring it down the straight, opening out a decent cushion over the Italian by turn one.
His haste to get away, however, proved to be Petrov's undoing. Just a couple of laps after the restart, the right rear of the Campos car caught the damp verge approaching one of Sentul's tighter left-handers and promptly spun the unfortunate Russian into the waiting trap. Although he was able to rallycross his way back onto the track, vital places had been lost, allowing Filippi to inherit what was certain to become the race lead.
Petrov's error was magnified just over a lap later when both Senna and Yoshimoto were handed drive-thru' penalties for allegedly passing the safety car at the second restart. The punishment appeared unduly harsh given the lack of pace the SC driver had shown in taking to the pit-lane, but rules are rules and both racers now knew that it was unlikely that they would score with two pit calls still to make.
![Luca Filippi testing for GP2 newcomers Qi-Meritus.Mahara in Dubai ahead of the inaugural GP2 Asia Series in 2008 [pic credit: GP2 Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/403175.jpg)
