Pastor Maldonado extended his GP2 Series points lead by claiming his fourth victory of the season in today's feature race at Hockenheim. The Rapax driver took the lead at the start when polesitter Charles Pic (Arden) was slow off the line, and aside from one lap during the pit stop cycle he led the entire race from there on.
Addax's Sergio Perez gave Maldonado some trouble during the first stint, but all of the Mexican's attempts to get past were easily defended. He was unable to summon the same sort of pace from his second set of tires, though, and Maldonado went on to take a comfortable 3.8-second win, with Pic completing the podium.
Jules Bianchi was fourth for ART, taking the fastest lap along the way, with Super Nova's Marcus Ericsson, Trident's Adrian Zaugg and iSport's Oliver Turvey completing the points-scorers.
ART's Sam Bird had a nightmare race, starting toward the back of the field after crashing in qualifying and then being given a drivethrough penalty for causing a collision with Giedo van der Garde while fighting the Dutch Addax driver for 10th.
It was also a difficult afternoon for series returnee Romain Grosjean, who was hit from behind by Racing Engineering's Christian Vietoris and had to pit for repairs. He rejoined the race three laps down, and DAMS' misery was completed when Ho-Pin Tung retired at mid-distance. The Chinese driver had joined his teammate in the pits at the end of the first lap after breaking his front wing on the Coloni Dallara of Alberto Valerio.