Charles Pic earned his first GP2 Asia win by breaking away from the early chaos in the Bahrain sprint race. The Frenchman overtook initial leader Adrian Zaugg and then escaped from his pursuers while they spent the next few laps tripping over each other.
For much of the race, it looked like Arden would score a 1-2, with Pic's teammate Javier Villa all over the back of second-placed Giacomo Ricci. But the latter picked up his pace later on and charged away to secure DPR's third podium finish in the last two events.
Having gained pole position on the partially reversed grid thanks to his eighth place yesterday, Zaugg (Trident) led into the first corners while Coloni's Alvaro Parente and Addax's Sergio Perez fought for second. The pair ended up banging wheels approaching Turn 4, leaving Perez with a broken wing and sending Parente spinning into the barriers as his apparently wounded car broke loose on the following downhill sweeps. There was more contact farther down the pack, and newly crowned champion Davide Valsecchi (iSport) and race one podium finisher Luca Filippi (Meritus) both had to pit for repairs.
Leader Zaugg did not have the pace to pull away and soon had Pic, Ricci, ART's fast-starting Jules Bianchi and Villa queuing up behind him.
Pic dived ahead at the end of the backstraight on lap four, with Ricci then following him in the next corner. As Zaugg tried to fight back, Bianchi got alongside him as well, with all three cars wheel to wheel through the last turn, down the pit straight and into the first complex – where it ended badly as contact damaged Zaugg and Bianchi's cars. That settled the top three positions, Pic having pulled clear and Ricci eventually dropping Villa and securing second.
Rapax's Daniele Zampieri had emerged from the mayhem in fourth, but was hunted down as the race progressed – Sam Bird (ART) and Edoardo Piscopo (DAMS) demoting him in the closing stages. Zampieri then handed the final point to iSport's Oliver Turvey when he ran wide while trying to fend off the Briton with two laps to go, and also dropped behind his charging Rapax teammate Vladimir Arabadzhiev.