Van der Garde wins race one in style

The Dutchman was undeterred by an eighth place grid slot and took his first win since the Norisring F3 Euro Series event in 2006.

Comtec's Pasquale di Sabatino claimed his first FR3.5 podium, having led Van der Garde for six laps. The pair came within a whisker of colliding at the first chicane on lap nine, when Van der Garde took a chunk of kerb on the apex of the corner in avoiding action. Di Sabatino's exit was compromised by taking a tight line so van der Garde slip-streamed him through the Curva Grande and took the lead around the outside of Di Sabatino at the Variante della Roggia.

"I'm going to remember everything about this weekend," said Van der Garde. "I must say we were bloody fast. We were fastest in free practice, fastest in qualifying, and we've won the race.

"Now I can look forward to starting from pole-position tomorrow. I think I was a bit lucky at the start by going to the outside when everyone else was stuck on the inside, but I've never had a car so good throughout a race distance."

Julien Jousse had an incident packed race to take third from 11th on the grid. The Tech 1 driver duelled over the position with Fabio Carbone, but the battle ended when the Frenchman punted Carbone's car into a pirouette at the first chicane. Pole position driver Bertrand Baguette was forced to retire on lap five when his gearbox became stuck in fifth gear.

Baguette and front-row starter Chares Pic enjoyed a side-by-side drag race into first chicane from the green light, where Baguette found himself squeezed off the track and across the grass. Despite the close call, Baguette withheld the lead, as Pic dropped a place behind Di Sabatino into third.

Pic was unable to keep pace with the leading two drivers, but the 18-year-old belied his diminutive, child-like, stature and with an attacking style. Perhaps the Frenchman was trying too hard, a mistake at the Ascari chicane created an opportunity for the chasing Marco Bonanomi and van der Garde to close up into his slipstream.

The third to fifth placed cars were momentarily three abreast, with Robert Wickens trying to find a spare piece of race track in order to get in on the action.

"Pic made a mistake at Ascari," said Giedo, "and I decided to use my push-to-pass to over-take Bonanomi and Charles together. When we arrived at the Parabolica I made sure to take a wide line in case there were any problems behind."

Van der Garde's intuition proved correct. As Pic fought to recover his lost ground, Bonanomi turned in sharply despite being just shy of a full car length in front. The collision pitched Pic sideways, and the ensuing loss of momentum dropped the Frenchman five positions, although no serious damage was sustained to his Tech 1 car. Bonanomi speared off the track through the Parabolica's gravel trap. He rejoined only in order to bring his stricken car into the pits, where he parked up with broken suspension.

At the front, Baguette's gearbox was already beginning to play up. Di Sabatino took the lead on lap three, as the Draco driver pulled into the escape road at the first chicane.

"I had to ask it three of four times to select fifth gear before it would engage," he said. "Fourth gear was okay, but eventually it became stuck in fifth. Without that I think the race was ours, because my car was so strong on the first lap."

Jousse homed in on Carbone, who spent several laps covering the inside line in a bid to defend his position. The close running between the two looked precarious, and Jousse finally drove into the back of the Brazilian on lap 11.

"I think he missed his brakes because he hit me when we had finished taking the corner," said Carbone. "I think he was only close because he was in my tow, if we were both in clean air I would have been as quick as him."

The Tech 1 driver unsurprisingly had a different point of view: "I stayed for many laps trying to overtake Carbone," said Jousse, "so I didn't lose my patience, even though I could see Di Sabatino getting away up the road. I wanted to try and overtake him but he just turned in and hit me with his rear."

Pablo Sanchez momentarily took advantage to move into third, but Jousse reclaimed his position four tours later out-braking the Mexican into the first corner.

Carbone's eventful race finally ended after being black-flagged following an accident with Marcos Martinez, in which his front wing became detached. The shunt was another to take place at the treacherous first chicane, Martinez retired on the spot having been pitched into the air.

Pos Driver                   Team                  Gap
 1. Giedo van der Garde      P1              39:33.853 
 2. Pasquale Di Sabatino     Comtec             +5.645 
 3. Julien Jousse            Tech 1             +9.123 
 4. Pablo Sanchez            Interwetten       +10.440 
 5. Mikhail Aleshin          Carlin            +13.533 
 6. Borja Garcia             RC                +16.969 
 7. James Walker             Fortec            +18.168 
 8. Guillaume Moreau         KTR               +23.360 
 9. Charles Pic              Tech 1            +23.614 
10. Pippa Mann               P1                +27.477 
11. Aleix Alcaraz            RC                +32.588 
12. Marco Barba              Draco             +33.989 
13. Daniel Move              KTR               +55.596 
14. Alex Marsoin             Epsilon           +56.262 
15. Julian Theobald          Fortec          +1:01.942 
16. Claudio Cantelli Jr      Ultimate        +1:21.924 
17. Maximo Cortes            Pons               +1 lap 

Not classified
    
    Driver                   Team                 Laps
    Fabio Carbone            Ultimate          22 laps
    Marcos Martinez          Pons              20 laps
    Miguel Molina            Prema             20 laps
    Mario Romancini          Epsilon           10 laps
    Robert Wickens           Carlin             7 laps
    Bertrand Baguette        Draco              5 laps
    Marco Bonanomi           Comtec              1 lap
    Alvaro Barba             Prema               1 lap