The Finn beat pole-sitter Max Chilton off the line and controlled a comfortable gap over second-placed Jaime Alguersuari for the majority of the 24-lap race. But a rain shower in the last 10 minutes coincided with Ericsson's charge from seventh on the grid.
Ericsson picked off Carlin teammates Oliver Turvey and Sam Abay in the early, dry conditions, and took third from Chilton as the Hitech driver aborted his defence of the position at the hairpin and went straight on round the oval.
The Swede then set about the lead pair, who were over three seconds up the road. The gap reduced more each lap the wetter the circuit got as the rain brought about a classic slicks on a wet track situation, and Ericsson was a second a lap quicker than Alguersuari and Mustonen as the track got more slippery.
Ericsson took second from Alguersuari down the inside at turn two and threatened Mustonen's lead as the Finn lost three seconds on one lap as he tried to lap Hywel Lloyd.
But Ericsson ran out of laps and Mustonen held on to record his first victory of the season.
"I pushed at the start to make myself a gap and then it was comfortable," said Mustonen. "It was very slippery for a couple of laps at the end and I lost a lot of time lapping a car, but I had it under control."
Ericsson added: "That was a brilliant race, I knew we had the pace to do that. When it was only raining a little I was really quick and thought maybe I could even win, but it rained harder and I found the limit a couple of times and thought I'd better calm down because second is a great result and exactly what we needed."
Alguersuari completed the podium in third, ahead of Chilton who disappeared round the oval twice during the race but dropped back to resume his correct position each time.
Championship leader Sergio Perez finished fifth after making solid progress throughout the race from 11th on the grid, ahead of Oliver Turvey who rounded out the top six.
Andy Meyrick took another National Class victory, returning to form after a couple of retirements at Monza. He slipped back through the field of Championship Class cars from his excellent fourth row grid spot.
At one point it looked as though he would be challenged by Salman Al-Khalifa, but he strode away confidently as the conditions became more difficult in the closing laps.
Classified:Pos Driver Car Time 1. Atte Mustonen Dallara/Mercedes 30:40.004 2. Marcus Ericsson Dallara/Mercedes + 2.907 3. J.Alguersuari Dallara/Mercedes + 6.077 4. Max Chilton Dallara/Mercedes + 10.877 5. Sergio Perez Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 13.886 6. Oliver Turvey Dallara/Mercedes + 15.066 7. S.Hohenthal Dallara/Mercedes + 17.246 8. Sam Abay Dallara/Mercedes + 21.343 9. W.Grubmuller Dallara/Mercedes + 23.199 10. Brendon Hartley Dallara/Mercedes + 24.432 11. John Martin Dallara/Mercedes + 32.720 12. Michael Devaney Mygale/Mercedes + 34.941 13. Henry Arundel Dallara/Mercedes + 38.808 14. Nick Tandy Mygale/Mercedes + 39.538 15. Ricardo Teixeira Mygale/Mercedes + 46.064 16. Andrew Meyrick Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 49.678 17. S.Al-Khalifa Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 58.719 18. Stefan Wilson Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 1'07.462 19. Jay Bridger Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 1'07.791 20. Philip Major Dallara/Mercedes + 1'17.299 21. Viktor Jensen Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 1 Lap 22. Hywel Lloyd Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 1 Lap 23. Niall Quinn Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 1 Lap 24. Craig Reiff Dallara/Mugen-Honda + 1 Lap Not classified: Driver Car Laps Steven Guerrero Dallara/Mugen-Honda 21 Kristjan Einar Dallara/Mugen-Honda 1 Ali Jackson Mygale/Mercedes 0 Fastest lap: Alguersuari, 1:13.229 on lap 5
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