Pastor Maldonado took yet another feature race victory at Spa-Francorchamps today, although he only just managed to hang on under heavy pressure from Alvaro Parente at the end.
The Rapax driver was struggling with his car and almost certainly would not have held off Coloni stand-in Parente for another lap.
Parente, who led most of the race before making a late stop, closed rapidly on the series leader during the final lap, but was just too far back to make a move at the Bus Stop.
Another stand-in driver, Romain Grosjean (subbing for injured Ho-Pin Tung at DAMS), took third place after fellow podium contenders Jerome d'Ambrosio and Sergio Perez ran into trouble. D'Ambrosio, who started on pole but lost the lead to Maldonado when both pitted together, eventually retired.
Perez (Addax) took third on the first lap and kept the spot after the stops, but lost that when he had to serve a drive-through for pit lane speeding.
A first-lap accident involving Sam Bird (ART) and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) caused a safety car interruption, but the race ran green from the restart on lap four.
Results to follow