Baguette takes stylish Aragon win

The Draco driver executed a string of precise overtaking manoeuvres to demonstrate that securing this year's drivers' crown has failed to dampen his competitive instincts.

Baguette reeled in reverse grid polesitter Oliver Turvey to take the lead at mid-distance. The Carlin driver successfully held the Belgian at bay for three laps until, on lap 15, Baguette outbraked the new iSport GP2 signing into the tight, Turn 14 hairpin.

Turvey was left to settle for second, his fifth podium of the season.

"It was a very good race for us," said Baguette. "As I had already wrapped up the drivers' title my main aim for today was to take a lot of pleasure. I have to thank the team for giving me such a good car so that I could pass so many adversaries.

"Tomorrow, I also want to help them win the teams' championship and give them the numbers one and two for next year."

Jon Lancaster finished third to make up for a disappointing meeting last time out. The Comtec driver passed fourth place starter Jaime Alguersuari into Turn 1 away from the lights, and initially followed Baguette's wheel tracks moving up the order.

Lancaster's progress was to slow when he encountered higher than expected front tyre wear over the closing stages, and was made to work for his third position by Daniil Move. The Russian P1 Motorsport driver closed to finish within 0.7s at the chequered flag, but ran out of time to relieve the Leeds driver of the final step on the podium.

The new Motorland circuit provided ample opportunity for passing. Esteban Guerrieri was the most successful exponent, gaining ten places over his starting position to finish fifth in a storming drive for RC Motorsport.

Tomorrow's feature race poleman Fairuz Fauzy came out on top in a frantic mid-race scrap with Toro Rosso F1 driver Alguersuari and Epsilon Euskadi's Chris van der Drift, and the Malaysian succeeded in passing Pons's front row starter Federico Leo for sixth three laps from home.

The battle for second place in the drivers' standings has tightened after today's race.

Tech 1 Racing's Charles Pic, who failed to add to his score today, has a fragile hold on the position with 94 points. Alguersuari has now closed to within six points, with British drivers Turvey and James Walker a further point adrift, tied on 87, ahead of Fauzy on 86.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Bertrand Baguette    Draco            46m17.280s
 2.  Oliver Turvey        Carlin             + 1.634s
 3.  Jon Lancaster        Comtec             + 7.750s
 4.  Daniil Move          P1                 + 8.482s
 5.  Esteban Guerrieri    RC                + 11.241s
 6.  Fairuz Fauzy         Mofaz             + 20.396s
 7.  Federico Leo         Pons              + 23.739s
 8.  Jaime Alguersuari    Carlin            + 25.319s
 9.  Chris van der Drift  Epsilon Euskadi   + 25.689s
10.  Greg Mansell         Comtec            + 25.993s
11.  Marcos Martinez      Pons              + 31.776s
12.  Filip Salaquarda     Prema             + 32.454s
13.  Charles Pic          Tech 1            + 36.395s
14.  Marco Barba          Draco             + 36.592s
15.  Brendon Hartley      Tech 1            + 39.573s
16.  Salvador Duran       Interwetten       + 44.120s
17.  Keisuke Kunimoto     Epsilon Euskadi   + 44.356s
18.  James Walker         P1                + 44.645s
19.  Guillaume Moreau     SG                + 50.349s
20.  Mihai Marinescu      Interwetten       + 51.489s
21.  Julian Leal          Prema             + 57.069s

Retirements:

     Bruno Mendez         RC               16 laps
     Sten Pentus          Mofaz            0 laps
     Anton Nebylitskiy    SG               0 laps