Senna pitted first, handing the second Qi-Meritus car a brief lead before Yoshimoto followed him in a lap later, but waited until lap 38 to make his tyre stop. By that time, Yoshimoto had called it a day after two moments on the same lap and Filippi had moved into the lead. The Italian was not comfortable out front, however, with Buemi sitting in his mirrors heading into the closing stages.
Further back, Valles, for all his challenges early on, now found himself in the clutches of impressive debutant Ben Hanley, who had kept his nose clean throughout to rise from 18th on the grid. The Briton, without the benefit of pre-series testing, harried the more experienced Spaniard until a couple of laps from home, when he dropped a couple of seconds back.
Behind them, round one dominator Romain Grosjean was having a quiet and lonely race in fifth, far enough ahead of the recovering Petrov to avoid pressure, but unable to close on the battling duo ahead. Petrov was equally comfortable ahead of Milos Pavlovic, who had the battle for race two pole, between Fauzy and Jelley in his wake.
The two-way scrap soon grew to include Senna, however, the Brazilian setting a string of laps up to a second faster than anyone else, courtesy in part to his newer rubber, to close the gap. Remarkably, on the final lap, the erstwhile leader managed to pass both the cars ahead of him to assume top spot on the grid for race two on Sunday morning.
The action was just as close at the front, as Buemi homed in on Filippi and took a couple of looks going into the final tour as the Italian struggled for grip on his worn tyres. Somehow, Filippi managed to hold the Arden car at bay around the final four kilometres, but was then forced to defend for another lap after Buemi appeared to miss the chequered flag in the dirt and dust thrown up by the leader. Unsure as to whether he should still be battling for position, Filippi again kept the Swiss behind him before the pair took the flag for a second time.
It only seemed appropriate for a race that had been wayward from the start.
![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)
