Luiz Razia closed to within a point of the GP2 Series points lead after he stole a last-gasp victory in the sprint race at Valencia.
Polesitter James Calado led for much of the race, but had received constant pressure from a surprising Rio Haryanto. The Indonesian briefly took the lead of the race as they crossed the line at the end of lap 14 after making a move at the final corner. Calado however regained the place into turn two.
Lap 20 saw contact between the pair at turn 12, contact that put Haryanto out of the race. From that moment on Calado didn't seem to have the pace of those behind him, led by Fabio Leimer who had just got by Haryanto's Carlin teammate Max Chilton.
Leimer got alongside Calado on several occasions but the Englishman defended well. On the very last lap, Leimer had edged ahead under braking on the outside at turn 12, but locked up and ran straight ahead, with Calado following him across the chicane.
Leimer sportingly gave the place back along the next straight, but as he tried to regain the place on Calado under braking at the turn 17 hairpin, Razia came around the outside and drove around both Leimer and then Calado to take the lead and steal the victory.
The Brazilian driver had run sixth for most of the race, but passed van der Garde and then Chilton on the penultimate lap for third.
Calado and Leimer joined Razia on the podium, with Chilton fourth. Nathanael Berthon took fifth from van der Garde on the final lap.
Berthon started the race from third on the grid, and found himself defending from a fast-starting Marcus Ericsson into turn 2. Berthon ran wide of the apex, leaving Ericsson with nowhere to go other than the tyre wall. Esteban Gutierrez followed him in as did Stefano Coletti and Davide Valsecchi, bringing out the safety car.
At the restart there was more carnage further back, as Johnny Cecotto and Jolyon Palmer tangled on the pit straight after the former had run wide, bringing out another safety car.
Behind van der Garde, Simon Trummer finished seventh with Julian Leal claiming a first GP2 point in eighth. Debutant Daniel De Jong finished ninth ahead of Valsecchi who managed to get going again after the start incident and then twice came into the pits and changed tyres.
