Christian Vietoris won a rain-hit GP2 feature race at Spa-Francorchamps, as Romain Grosjean finished third to seal the championship with three races remaining.
German racer Vietoris got away well at the start of the race, which began in the dry – though some part of the track were damp from earlier rain. Fellow front row starter Luca Filippi got a poor start from the damp side of the circuit and fell down to fifth. Jules Bianchi moved up to second, while Grosjean climbed from seventh to fourth off the line before taking third from Marcus Ericsson on the Kemmel Straight.
A little further behind Giedo van der Garde was pushed wide by Esteban Gutierrez exiting La Source. This resulted in the Dutchman – who was Grosjean's nearest points rival coming into the race – losing control on the wet astro-turf, pitching him off to the left and nudging the tyre barrier with his front wing.
Things remained fairly static towards the front until rain began to fall on lap 13. The latter half of the field stopped first once the rain began, with the frontrunners coming in at the earliest opportunity on the following lap.
The safety car then came out after Julian Leal spun and stopped at the top of Eau Rouge. That wouldn't stop chaos ensuing, as a slow Mikhail Aleshin was collected by Stefano Coletti, sending the latter's car off the ground. The Monegasque driver needed medical assistance, which kept the safety car out for several laps.
During the safety car many cars, such as those of Michael Herck, Max Chilton and Rodolfo Gonzalez, slowed to a crawl. They caused chaos as they stayed on the track while getting caught by the safety car and its pursuing train, with cars struggling to slow down and stay in the correct order in the difficult conditions. Ericsson was another to suffer problems, bringing him to a stop before the bus stop, having already lost fourth place to Filippi before the safety car period.
Once the race got going again there was only time left for one final lap, with Vietoris, Bianchi and Grosjean keeping hold of their podium spots, enough to give the latter the title.
Behind Filippi in fourth came series returnee Brendon Hartley, who scored the Ocean team's first points of the season on his debut with them. He kept Dani Clos and Josef Kral at bay, but all the attention was on the battle for the final point in eighth and the pole position for the sprint race.
Johnny Cecotto took the position from Fairuz Fauzy at Fagnes, only to slow out of the final chiance. He was nearly collected by both Super Nova cars of Fauzy and Adam Carroll, but Fauzy was able to regain eighth place.
Feature race results – 24 laps:
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time/Gap |
| 1 | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 1:00:55.099 |
| 2 | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 2.862 |
| 3 | Romain Grosjean | DAMS | 4.571 |
| 4 | Luca Filippi | Scuderia Coloni | 6.441 |
| 5 | Brendon Hartley | Ocean Racing Technology | 11.614 |
| 6 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 12.471 |
| 7 | Josef Kral | Arden International | 17.391 |
| 8 | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 18.906 |
| 9 | Adam Carroll | Super Nova Racing | 19.364 |
| 10 | Davide Valsecchi | Caterham Team AirAsia | 20.228 |
| 11 | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 22.899 |
| 12 | Sam Bird | iSport International | 23.358 |
| 13 | Pal Varhaug | DAMS | 24.110 |
| 14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 31.304 |
| 15 | Max Chilton | Carlin | +1 lap |
| 16 | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | +1 lap |
| Ret | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 18 laps |
| Ret | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 18 laps |
| Ret | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 18 laps |
| Ret | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 16 laps |
| Ret | Mikhail Aleshin | Carlin | 16 laps |
| Ret | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 15 laps |
| Ret | Julian Leal | Rapax | 14 laps |
| Ret | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 7 laps |
| Ret | Luiz Razia | Caterham Team AirAsia | 1 lap |
| Ret | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1 lap |
