Senna and Pantano, along with the impressive di Grassi and home favourite Mike Conway, rose above the chaos, however, and lapped consistently at the head of the field.
From third on the grid, Senna adapted immediately to the slippery conditions and worked his way into the lead during the course of the opening lap. Once ahead, he was able to pull away effortlessly as the weather fluctuated between light showers and torrential rain, coming home eight seconds clear of di Grassi.
“Conditions were obviously quite difficult but, from where I was sitting, everything felt reasonably straightforward," the Brazilian admitted afterwards, "Once I'd got into the lead, I took things fairly easy, although I started to push harder when Lucas closed in a little. I was able to pull away from him without any problem and, after that, I just settled into a rhythm. I know
Silverstone very well and there was no point pushing too hard when I didn't have to.
“There were all sorts of incidents going on – blue flags, yellow flags and so on – but none of them caused me any real worries. The car was so good that I was able to put it almost anywhere I wanted on the circuit. Everything felt great from start to finish.”
Pantano, meanwhile, had taken advantage of slower starts from the front row and incidents that accounted for others ahead of him to move quickly into third spot, a position he held to the finish despite both a concerted effort catch di Grassi and the need to keep an eager Conway at bay.
He lapped around three seconds behind the leading pair, before a slight off-road moment on lap seven - which saw the Racing Engineering car running several metres over the grass before coming back onto the track - convinced him that the risk was too high.
"Eighth to third was quite good for me under these conditions," he admitted, "I just decided to keep my place and not take a risk, especially during the last ten laps, when it started raining again. I finished third and I have to thank the entire team as we had a great weekend."
![Giorgio Pantano - Racing Engineering [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/463270.jpg)
