Pastor Maldonado and Rapax have picked up victory in Valencia’s Feature Race by avoiding carnage on Saturday afternoon. Following Formula 1 qualifying, the dramatic encounter included two pile-ups and the destroying of a television camera amongst other highly-dramatic moments.
Venezuelan Maldonado was unable to match the storming start from Mexican rival Sergio Pérez when the lights went out and slotted in behind for second place, and when two accidents on the opening lap removed nine drivers further down the grid a safety car period was inevitable. There was further back news for Maldonado when he was jumped at the restart by Bianchi and Davide Valsecchi, pushing him back down to fourth as the field got back up to speed.
The fightback came almost immediately. With Pérez's car seemingly down on power after a tap on the exhaust by Maldonado at the first turn of the race, Bianchi was easily through and into the lead a few corners into the restart. Valsecchi tried to go with the Frenchman but caught Pérez's rear wheel, tapping him into a spin and delaying the Italian long enough to give
Maldonado an simple run through the pair. Maldonado spent the next five laps all over Bianchi's rear wing until the pressure told: he ran wide at the final turn and the Venezuelan was into a lead that he would not give up for the remainder of the race, running a string of fastest laps to give himself a big enough buffer before his stop to re- emerge in first. Charles Pic and Dani Clos then had a little pit lane duel, won by the Spaniard as his team got him out ahead of his rival, but Sam Bird's stop a lap later was even faster, jumping the pair as they came back around again.
And with the pit stops resolved, so went the race: Maldonado finished 8 seconds to the good on Bianchi, who had an equal gap over his teammate when the chequered flag dropped. Giedo van der Garde did his best to bring home another podium for his team but missed by less than a second, with Clos a lonely fifth position ahead of the race long battle between Charles Pic, Marcus Ericsson and Michael Herck for the final 3 points positions.
Maldonado's fine win stretches his lead in the championship to eleven points over Clos, 38 to 27, with van der Garde moving up to third on 22 points: Razia is two points back in fourth, with Pérez and Bianchi tied behind him on 19 points.
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