Silverstone 2007: Zuber breaks curse.

Andi Zuber finally put an end to the jinx that has been following him around this season, taking a comfortable lights-to-flag win from pole in the feature race at Silverstone.

Having annexed his maiden pole in the GP2 Series on Friday afternoon, the UAE-based Austrian made the most of the clear road ahead of him - something he hadn't managed to do from second spot at Magny-Cours a week ago - to head Mike Conway and Lucas di Grassi into Copse.

Further back, there was less action than in France, with Timo Glock a significant mover, making up a place at the expense of Kazuki Nakajima. Adam Carroll also took advantage of a slow start from the DAMS driver to slot into fifth, while Giorgio Pantano made one of the best getaways of the afternoon, gaining four place to sit ninth.

Already out at this stage were both DPR cars. Andy Soucek, among those to have been demoted for yellow flag offences in qualifying, caused the initial start to be aborted when he stalled on the grid, and then pulled off exiting Club on his first lap. At the same time, team-mate Christian Bakkerud was in the pits, his race run as the gremlins hit his 'home' race.

Having failed to make the start in each of the last three feature races, Zuber was not about to waste this opportunity, and was quickly opening out a gap to Conway half a second up by the end of lap three, the margin edged towards a full second before Conway stemmed the flow. Third place was already dropping away, as di Grassi came under heavy pressure from both Glock and Carroll.

The German was in no mood to hang about, eager not to let his iSport team-mate have things all his own way, but also keen to bolster a championship lead badly hit at Magny-Cours. Approaching Abbey on lap four, he lined up outside di Grassi and held his nerve to claim the inside for the second part of the chicane. Caught by surprise, di Grassi then yielded another spot to the opportunistic Carroll, who cut back down the inside at the exit of the corner.

Surprisingly, given that Bridgestone had supplied its hard compound rubber for the weekend, the mandatory pit-stops began on the very same lap, with Bruno Senna - who had failed to set a qualifying lap and duly started well down the order - the first to take advantage of new tyres. He was soon followed by both Pantano and the closely-following Nicolas Lapierre, who pitted, exited and continued racing together.

The leaders did not stop for several more laps, Glock the first of the top three to do so on lap eleven. Conway and Zuber followed over the next two tours, leaving Carroll out front for the first time since returning to the series with FMSI in France. With Vitaly Petrov providing a buffer back to the rejoined Zuber - who had exited the pits just ahead of Conway - Carroll pressed on, extending his advantage to around 32 seconds by lap 16 - the sort of gap that could make a difference to the outcome of the race.

The podium was about to be shaped by another incident, however, for Glock re-appeared on pit-lane, stopping in the vacant space ahead of the first garage. The iSport team seemed not to have noticed the German's arrival, and it was some time - and some frantic radio conversation later - that someone brought a slave battery to the stricken car. The sidepod came off, suggesting electrical problems, and it was some time before Glock was moving again, his bid for points already over.

The iSport car was still stationary in the same spot when Carroll made his pit-stop on lap 17, rejoining in third but only narrowly failing to usurp Conway for second as the Super Nova car followed Zuber past pit-exit with the FMSI driver approaching. It mattered little, however, for, in his haste to maintain the advantage he had built up, Carroll failed to hit the pit speed limiter in time and was adjudged to have come in too fast. The ensuing drive-thru' penalty, called five laps later, ended his podium aspirations by dropping the Briton to sixth.

Former Super Nova team-mate - and FMSI predecessor - Pantano was out by the time Carroll served his punishment, the Italian's engine letting go as he started his 18th lap. He was followed on to the sidelines by fellow veteran Nicolas Lapierre, who suffered a big off at the flat-out Copse. Initial fears that fluid from Pantano's engine had caused the incident were laid to rest when replays showed the DAMS car suddenly veering left before making heavy contact with the guard rail. Lapierre, fortunately, was able to emerge from the battered chassis, having seemingly avoided major injury.

After that, the rest of the race appeared a little staid, although the efforts of the two Arden drivers and their Racing Engineering counterparts went some way to livening up proceedings. While Zuber and Conway cruised out front, and Nakajima headed di Grassi, Luca Filippi and Carroll at a distance, Bruno Senna gave spirited chase to Michael Ammermuller and Adrian Zaugg defended manfully against Sakon Yamamoto, Javier Villa and newcomer Filipe Albuquerque.

"I have to give a big thank you to the team for doing such a good job, as always, and I know our luck hasn't been too good so far, but hopefully this is a turning point for us," Conway said.

Nakajima echoed similar sentiments after taking his best result of the year for DAMS.

"I've had a lot of bad luck earlier in the season - I think we were in a similar position to these guys!" he said in the post-race press conference, "For me, this is really the start of the season."

While Senna was unsuccessful in his attempts to prise tenth from his German opponent, Yamamoto - briefly - and Villa had more joy. Yamamoto made the first move, scything inside Zaugg at Stowe - only to find the South African fighting back at Club. Both speared onto the grass a result, and Villa gratefully accepted two places, with Albuquerque slotting in behind the recovering Zaugg. There was to be no repeat of the French joy for Racing Engineering, however, with Villa and his rookie team-mate starting Sunday's race well down the grid.

The final act of the afternoon was accorded to Glock, now back on track after concerted effort from the iSport crew. The German knew that his best chance of scoring was to chase fastest lap, something he did successfully until the very last lap when, just as he was about to be passed by team-mate Zuber, the car quit on him again, stranding him at Club - and denying him the bonus, which went to Zuber..

"Two points for pole position, one point for fastest lap, and then points for the race win - it's just perfect for me," Zuber admitted, "The team did a great job, like always, but the race was quite tough because Mike was quite tough and he pushed me a lot, especially after the pit-stop. I'm very happy!"

The leader, unaware of his good fortune at the time, went on to become the eighth different winner in as many races this year, although iSport broke a similar run among the teams by getting its second success of the season. With di Grassi and Filippi both scoring handily, however, its comfort zone at the top of the drivers' championship diminished once again.