Petrov reigns in Spain

Petrov, 23, took the lead on lap seven of the race and led his Campos Grand Prix team-mate home for the first one-two of the squad's history at the Valencia circuit that is just three miles from their headquarters.

Further back Timo Glock finished seventh to increase his championship lead to four points over Lucas di Grassi, who spun out on slick tyres while the race was at it's wettest.

The race started on a wet track with polesitter Kazuki Nakajima making a great getaway to lead the field in his DAMS car from Petrov, who burst through from the fourth row to second and Roldan Rodriguez.

But it was Rodriguez who made the early running, pulling his Minardi-Piquet car ahead of Nakajima on the second lap and leading over the line.

It was not to last though as a trip through the gravel dropped him to fifth and a spin two laps later put him out for good.

While this was happening, Petrov was busy slipstreaming Nakajima down the main straight and moving ahead at the first corner, and he was soon followed by Pantano as the Japanese driver began to struggle with his over-heating tyres.

Next pass him should have been his countryman Kohei Hirate, but the Trident driver spun out after putting the power down over the kerbs on lap nine.

The pit-stops failed to shake up the order at the front with Petrov retaining his lead after staying out for three more laps than Pantano on the wet tyres. He was able to maintain things thereafter and win by 2.5 seconds.

With Pantano struggling on worn slicks, Nakajima closed onto his tail, but no matter how close he got, he could not make it past. The battle went to the flag and saw the latter ram Pantano up the rear as the pair crossed the line second and third.

A sensational fourth place, after a controlled drive, went to Marcos Martinez in the first of the Racing Engineering cars while behind it was Luca Filippi in defensive mode.

The Italian was struggling though and was powerless to stop Durango's Borja Garcia and DPR's Andy Soucek from coming by. Timo Glock was another to ease his way past after an early switch to slicks left him a lap down.

The race finally ended for the Super Nova man as he spun out with two laps to go, surrendering eighth and pole position for the sprint race, a position that eventually went to Javier Villa's Racing Engineering machine.

Mikhail Aleshin and Filipe Albuquerque completed the top ten for ART and Arden, but Lucas di Grassi had a terrible day.

After running around in midfield, the Brazilian gambled on an early switch to slicks, but it proved ill-fated, causing him to spin out of the race on lap five.

The result means he is now four points behind Glock in the title race with only seven available from the final race of the season, and he starts behind the German.

Glock will therefore be crowned as champion if he finishes fourth or higher on Sunday, regardless of what di Grassi does.