Rigon wins again for Beijing

An otherwise dull race revolved entirely around the mandatory pitstops. Having started and ran third in the early stages, Rigon was the first to pit on lap nine.

A lap later it was the turn of pole position man Adrian Valles in the Liverpool car and Doornbos in the AC Milan entry. The Milan crew were slicker and got Doornbos ahead of the man he had trailed during the early stages. But the move merely kept him in second place as Rigon flashed past the pit exit at full speed to take the lead.

The Italian steadily built on his advantage from a second to over three during the second half of the race and was able to take his third win of the season - and a 60-point lead in the championship, meaning Beijing could take the title in the second race of the day.

Behind Rigon and Doornbos came Galatasaray's Alessandro Pierguidi. The Italian had run a comfortable fourth before the pit-stops, and left it until lap 12 to make his tyre change.

It paid off as he too got ahead of Valles as a result and held off the advances of the Liverpool driver for the rest of the race.

Valles lost a certain fourth place however, when his pace dropped off by around six seconds a lap with three to go. He dropped to ninth on the last lap as Flamengo's Tuka Rocha, Rangers' Ryan Dalziel, Corinthians' Antonio Pizzonia, Anderlecht's Craig Dolby and Porto's Tristan Gommendy all got by.

Gommendy, who started 16th, could have done better, but got involved with the spinning Basel car of Max Wissel at mid-distance and was forced to take to the grass in avoidance.

Roma were the other club to miss out on a good result. Franck Perera was challenging Rocha for fifth with six laps to go when his outside front wheel mysteriously locked and forced him wide. Perera retired in the pits before the end.

Pos  Rider                    Team                 Time
 1.  Davide Rigon             Beijing Guoan        45:40.448
 2.  Robert Doornbos          AC Milan             1.679
 3.  Alessandro Pier Guidi    Galatasaray          11.750
 4.  Tuka Rocha               Flamengo             32.589
 5.  Ryan Dalziel             Rangers              33.205
 6.  Antonio Pizzonia         Corinthians          34.288
 7.  Craig Dolby              Anderlecht           35.238
 8.  Tristan Gommendy         FC Porto             35.712
 9.  Adrián Vallés            Liverpool            38.594
10.  Yelmer Buurman           PSV Eindhoven        43.216
11.  Duncan Tappy             Tottenham Hotspur    59.987
12.  Max Wissel               FC Basel             1:02.549
13.  Stamatis Katsimis        Olympiacos           + 1 lap
14.  Dominick Muermans        Al Ain               + 1 lap
                                                   
Not classified                                  
     Driver                   Team                 Laps
     Franck Perera            AS Roma              29 laps
     Andy Soucek              Atletico Madrid      17 laps
     Borja García             Sevilla FC           10 laps
     Enrico Toccacelo         Borussia Dortmund     2 laps