Behind them chaos was descending, with Alvaro Parente and Dani Clos cutting the kerb (for later drive through penalties) ahead of a drag to the next chicane, where Luca Filippi ran too deep and took out Giedo van der Garde, prompting a safety car to clean up the mess.

Immediately at the restart 2 laps later Jerome d'Ambrosio thought he'd found Bianchi napping and ran outside him at turn one before being pushed wide, with the subsequent accordion affect at the tight corner causing Romain Grosjean to stop sharply.

[1] Straight after the next restart Bianchi out dragged Parente to regain P2 into the first chicane, but at Ascari Michael Herck braked late and extinguished Perez's championship run against the tyre barrier.

He had a storming start which caught many of his rivals napping, and a controlled drive thereafter under extreme pressure, to greet the chequered flag ahead of Jerome d'Ambrosio and Sam Bird, while Pastor Maldonado failed to finish but nevertheless claimed the 2010 GP2 Series driver's championship.

Bird was looking to cap off his best weekend of the season in style: a sharp getaway had him up to fourth on the road from eighth on the grid, and he quickly dispatched pole man Max Chilton at the first chicane next time through for a podium spot.