The Racing Engineering pilot made a great getaway from the inside of row three, immediately gaining a place as a slow-starting Grosjean caused Andi Zuber to lift. Senna's mistake then gifted him another position, but Pantano found himself losing time to new leader Lucas di Grassi as he became embroiled in a head-to-head with the recovering Grosjean, with Senna never too far away.
The leaders were all on a similar pit-stop strategy, but Pantano clearly had the better car when the resumed and, despite being denied one passing opportunity by an abandoned car at Vale, seized the smallest of chances to pass Grosjean when the Frenchman left a minute gap at the Abbey chicane. It was barely a car wide, but Pantano dived down the inside, the two cars rubbing wheels before the Racing Engineering emerged in second.
He was now 3.7secs behind leader di Grassi, but Pantano quickly began to close the gap and, on lap 30, was right behind the Brazilian as the cars exited the Becketts complex. Having slipstreamed his rival down the length of the Hangar Straight, Pantano feinted to the left and, as di Grassi covered the move, darted back to the right to take the lead in a move reminiscent of
Nigel Mansell's on Nelson Piquet in the 1987 British Grand Prix. With the Italian clearly faster, the contest was finished.
"Giorgio was absolutely fantastic, I think this was his best race to date," team principal Alfonso de Orleans Borbón enthused afterwards, "The whole team was able to make everything work absolutely perfectly and I want to thank every single team member for the effort and work they have been putting into the team this season. This is a team effort by everyone."
Pantano's victory meant that he would start Sunday's sprint race from eighth, with Senna on the inside of row two courtesy of his sixth place. Conditions, however, were very different, and it did not take long for the field to be reshuffled as cars slithered off at almost very corner.
![Giorgio Pantano - Racing Engineering [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/463270.jpg)
