Sutil was overtaken by Tsukakoshi on the lap but could not pull away because duelling cars were close by. At the end of the lap, the recovering Grosjean passed Kennard with Buurman towing behind. Buurman and Kennard then made contact and they went into the wall at San Francisco Bend corner. Consequently, race officials waved yellow flags for the final lap to warn drivers of the wreckage and little action occurred. Jelley fell behind Buemi on the lap and hit the wall on his slowing down lap, which dislodged one of his rear wheels. Kobayashi was untroubled and won the qualification race to start from pole position in the Grand Prix itself. He was joined on the grid's front row by Asmer who successfully held off third-placed Hirate. Off the podium, di Resta was fourth, Tsukakoshi took fifth after he prevailed in his duel with sixth-placed Sutil. Conway, Nakajima, Antinucci and Kimball rounded out the top ten. Outside the top ten, Jarvis finished 11th. having moved from his starting position of 22nd. The rest of the finishing order was Buemi, Jelley, Ikeda, Grosjean, Oshima, Massironi, Cortés, Winslow, Jakes, Rodríguez, Carbone, Ho, Ávila, Cheong, Lei and Merszei.
