The biggest winner of the tyre lottery now turned out to be Petrov, who had emerged in front of Fauzy and, with Valles and Buemi retiring, assumed the lead. The Malaysian, despite his initial woe on slicks, slotted into second, with d'Ambrosio, Kobayashi and Valsecchi giving chase.
The battle for fourth saw the position change hands as Valsecchi completed another solid performance for Durango by passing Kobayashi, but any hope anyone might have had of challenging for the win went west courtesy of Diego Nunes, who proceeded to try and race each of the leading group as they came up to lap him. The Brazilian was eventually given a stop-go for his antics, but not until the damage had been done.
Petrov was therefore able to cruise to his second win in the category, enhancing his claim to be the first Russian driver to race in
F1, while Fauzy had enough in hand over d'Ambrosio to cement another podium and ramp up his pursuit of Grosjean in the points. d'Ambrosio took the final podium spot for DAMS, while Valsecchi, Kobayashi, debutant Yelmer Buurman, Schlegelmilch and Pavlovic - who had had to recover from going off at the same point and time as the erstwhile leaders - contrived to deny Grosjean a top eight finish.
More importantly, the Frenchman will have to start from row five on Sunday, although he did take the point for fastest lap to add to the two for pole in an effort to keep his advantage ticking over.
![Vitaly Petrov - Barwa International Campos [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/419515.jpg)
