Giorgio Pantano came from fifth on the grid to win a thrilling GP2 Series encounter at
Silverstone, strengthening his hold on the lead of the drivers' championship.
The Italian laid down a huge marker to the rest of the field - in particular title rivals Bruno Senna and Romain Grosjean - after exploding past his rivals to steal an incredible victory after hunting down Lucas di Grassi with six laps to run. Despite not running right at the front for the majority of the race, the Racing Engineering driver kept his head while those around him in the leading group were losing theirs, managing his tyres and timing his challenge to perfection.
Senna converted his pole position into an early lead, with di Grassi easily muscling his way past a slow Romain Grosjean into Copse, but, three laps into the race, the iSport car was off the road at Stowe after being pushed in too deep by the gusting wind, undoing all of Senna's good work as his rivals went steaming through.
With Alvaro Parente and Andi Zuber showing just how tricky the track and conditions could be, the order continued to shuffle and, even when back up to speed, Senna had to fight hard just to hold position. di Grassi, meanwhile, continued to extend his lead while those behind fought, and was 3.5secs to the good after a dozen laps.
Grosjean was by then back up to second, having benefited from the slips by Senna and Zuber, with Pantano third ahead of the Brazilian and iSport Karun Chandhok, who was picking up places with regularity. The Frenchman was also the first of the frontrunners to make his mandatory stop, a lap before Pantano and two earlier than di Grassi.
They rejoined in the same order but Senna, who followed di Grassi in on lap 17 was further delayed when his countryman exited across his bows. The iSport car rejoined in tenth, albeit with several non-stoppers clouding the true picture
![Giorgio Pantano - Racing Engineering [pic credit: GP2 Series Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/459178.jpg)
