Timo Glock ended his run of poor results and became the first driver this year to win two races with a consummate drive in front of his home crowd.
Glock was beaten into the lead by Lucas di Grassi but easily took the lead later in the race and won with a comfortable margin. It gives him a four point lead in the Brazilian in the championship.
The red light seemed to hold the drivers for a long time at the start, and when they went but Lucas di Grassi easily nosed ahead of pole sitter Timo Glock into the first corner.
Behind them Sebastien Buemi out-braked himself into the first corner and tagged Luca Filippi. The two cars disentangled themselves but neither driver would get much further.
It was a doubly bad start for Super Nova as Mike Conway failed to get away and had to be restarted in the pits, losing a lap.
Pastor Maldonado had made a brilliant start from eighth to take fourth place. He then sprung a surprise move on Giorgio Pantano to take third at the hairpin at the start of the second lap.
Adrian Zaugg held fifth ahead of Kohei Hirate, Andy Soucek and Andreas Zuber. But Zuber suddenly fell back, being passed by Vitaly Petrov, Roldan Rodriguez and Sakon Yamamoto.
Two drivers chose to pit for fresh tyres as soon as the widow opened – Adam Carroll and Kazuki Nakajima. Nicolas Lapierre and Karun Chandhok came in on the next lap.
Glock was hounding di Grassi for the lead at every turn but could find nowhere to pass. Pantano was having the same problem with Maldonado and so ducked into the pits on lap seven.
Zaugg came in at the same time and came out just ahead of Carroll. The two banged wheels around the first corners and at the Dunlop hairpin, but Zaugg narrowly stayed ahead.
Leader di Grassi stayed out until the tenth lap, but after the ART driver pitted Glock banged in two quick laps, pitted and seized the effective lead. Trident team mates Maldonado and Hirate now led with Petrov third, all three yet to pit.
Maldonado pitted on lap 14 and lost the lead but now Glock was trying to pass Jason Tahinci, who was yet to pit, for second. That had allowed di Grassi to catch Glock but he was trying to defend from Nakajima, who had pitted and was effectively running third.
Glock passed Tahinci on lap 15 and di Grassi followed him through. Nakajima got caught behind the Turkish driver and now he had to cope with Pantano trying to pass. Tahinci finally pitted at the end of the lap and Nakajima managed to get some air between himself and Pantano.
Carroll’s early pit stop had not helped him and halfway through the race his eighth place was now under attack from Bruno Senna, Javier Villa and Nicolas Lapierre.
Senna had a late look at the inside of Carroll on lap 18 but knocked Carroll into a spin and out of the race. Further around the lap Villa then passed Senna to take eighth.
There was another spin at the hairpin on the next lap when Chandhok made a late lunge to pass Alexandre Negrao. Chandhok spun and resumed.
Hirate pitted on lap 21 and came out side by side with team mate Maldonado. The Venezuelan braved it out around the outside of the first corner and took fifth off Hirate.
Andy Soucek was struggling for pace and had series returnee Ernesto Viso trying to pass. On lap 24 Viso clipped the back of Soucek’s car at the chicane and missed the corner. As he let Soucek past it gave Negrao the chance to overtake, which he did at the hairpin.
Negrao passed Soucek at the same corner on the next lap and Viso followed him through. Soucek now fell into the clutches of the BCN team mates – Sakon Yamamoto having just passed Ho Pin Tung – and lost out to them as well on the same lap.
Hirate’s fresher tyres were giving him far more grip than team mate Maldonado had, and he lunged past for fifth at turn three on lap 28.
But Glock was completely untroubled by di Grassi and pulled out a comfortable four second lead to win easily.
On the final lap Nakajima caught di Grassi and chased him across the line but wasn’t able to pass.
Pantano took fourth ahead of the Trident cars, led by Hirate who scored his first points of the year. Zaugg was seventh ahead of Villa who will take pole position for tomorrow’s sprint race as he did in Magny-Cours.
Championship standings
1. Timo Glock 51
2. Lucas di Grassi 45
3. Luca Filippi 35
4. Giorgio Pantano 28
5. Bruno Senna 24
6. Pastor Maldonado 22
7. Kazuki Nakajima 21
8. Andreas Zuber 20
9. Javier Villa 15
10. Mike Conway 12
=11. Adam Carroll 9
=11. Nicolas Lapierre 9
=11. Vitaly Petrov 9
=14. Borja Garcia 8
=14. Adrian Zaugg 8
16. Roldan Rodriguez 7
=17. Sergio Jiminez 4
=17. Kohei Hirate 4
19. Michael Aleshin 3
20. Sebastien Buemi 2
=21. Michael Ammermuller 1
=21. Antonio Pizzonia 1
=21. Alexandre Negrao 1