Christian Vietoris won the first GP2 race of the Spa weekend, while Romain Grosjean sealed the championship with third place.
Racing Engineering’s Vietoris led from lights to flag in a race that was affected by a mid-race downpour and a very long safety car period.
The German managed a gap of just over two seconds back to ART’s Jules Bianchi through the dry part of the race, and he held the position when everyone pitted for wets at the end of lap 14.
He did not have to hold on for very long after that, as the safety car came out when Julian Leal spun at the top of Eau Rouge and could not get going again.
The Mercedes was then on track for eight laps as havoc broke loose behind it. The main cause for the extended delay was a collision between Stefano Coletti and Mikhail Aleshin, which required the Trident driver to receive medical attention before he was extricated from the car.
Several cars then slowed to a crawl at various intervals during the safety car period as their engines went into safe mode while the they were running slowly.
It was only once order was restored that the race could restart for one lap.
There were no dramas at the front, but the battle for eighth place and pole position for race two was frantic.
After several attacks, Johnny Cecotto Jr passed Fairuz Fauzy for the position at Fagnes. He appeared to have it in the bag from there, only to lose drive coming out of the final corner. That handed the final point to Fauzy, while Cecotto came home 11th.
Grosjean’s race was largely uneventful after he jumped from seventh to third at the start. That was helped by the left hand side of the grid being wet, which cost those starting in even-numbered positions dearly.
He was unable to challenge the top two, and instead had to keep Marcus Ericsson (iSport) and Luca Filippi (Coloni) at bay. Ericsson lost fourth after Filippi capitalised on him locking up at the Bus Stop chicane, and the Swede then retired when he was one of those to slow behind the safety car.
Grosjean’s closest title rival, Giedo van der Garde, was never in contention for a result that could have delayed the championship being decided. The Addax driver spun and clipped the barrier when he was pushed wide at the first corner, and he later glanced the barrier after a frightening 360-degree spin on the exit of Eau Rouge.