In his wake, Buemi did not appear to have the pace to bridge the gap, and was coming under increasing pressure from Pantano, despite the Racing Engineering Dallara puffing smoke whenever its Mecachrome engine was asked to provide a little more effort. The 'problem' did not seem to be holding the veteran back, however, with the following Petrov and Senna unable to take advantage of the battle ahead of them.
By lap ten, Grosjean was almost six seconds to the good, meaning that all the action was taking place back in the field, notably among those chasing points, but also between the two Piquet Sports drivers and over twelfth place as Brits Ben Hanley and Mike Conway harried the tyre-troubled Adrian Valles. The pressure on Pantano was alleviated when Petrov cruised to a halt on the main straight, joining Roldan Rodriguez on the sidelines.
The Russian's retirement meant that the Maldonado/Zuber scrap suddenly took on extra momentum, with a point now at stake, and the Austrian appeared to growing frustrated at having to follow his team-mate. The first contact came on lap 18, and resulted in minor cosmetic damage, but picked up in intensity two laps later as Zuber forced his way through at turn nine.
The final clash occurred with five laps to run, as the field was bunched up behind a safety car to clear the spun car of debutant Giacomo Ricci. This time, Maldonado forced his way back inside Zuber at turn one, forcing the Austrian to cut the corner and losing positions himself into the bargain. Whether enough was enough for the Piquet team is unclear, but both were summoned to pit-lane at the end of the lap....
That intra-team clash, however, was a sideshow to the main event - one which would have a major impact on the outcome of the race.
![Kamui Kobayashi - DAMS [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/432052.jpg)
