Soucek takes home win in race one

Polesitter Robert Wickens struggled away from the line and fell to fourth as Soucek led the field into Turn 1.

Mikhail Aleshin made a terrific start to follow the Spaniard having started the race in seventh place, with series debutant Tristan Vautier also making up ground away from the lights to run close behind in third.

Jason Moore and Jack Clarke had a coming together in the early stages, which left the former pointing in the wrong direction and forced to recover at the tail end of the field. Despite being the fastest man on the track at one point he was unable to progress and finished the race in last place.

Shortly afterwards Wickens' race fell apart entirely as he slowed suddenly and pulled off the circuit into retirement.

At the sharp end Soucek never look troubled and he maintained a steady gap to the chasing Aleshin all the way to the flag. Vautier was also untroubled en route to a mightily impressive podium finish on his F2 debut.

Julien Jousse, Philipp Eng, Mirko Bortolotti, Natacha Gachnang and Kazim Vasiliauskas filled out the points-paying positions. Gachnang's points are her first of the season.

By finishing in second place Aleshin has reduced what was a nine point gap to Wickens in the championship standings to a single point, and the two will now contest the overall runner-up spot in the final race of the year tomorrow afternoon.

Pos  Driver               Time/Gap
 1.  Andy Soucek          33m53.492s
 2.  Mikhail Aleshin      + 4.389s
 3.  Tristan Vautier      + 7.645s
 4.  Julien Jousse        + 7.980s
 5.  Philipp Eng          + 13.329s
 6.  Mirko Bortolotti     + 13.825s
 7.  Natacha Gachnang     + 16.977s
 8.  Kazim Vasiliauskas   + 17.476s
 9.  Tobias Hegewald      + 19.251s
10.  Milos Pavlovic       + 24.503s
11.  Nicola de Marco      + 26.378s
12.  Armaan Ebrahim       + 27.830s
13.  Jolyon Palmer        + 32.587s
14.  Tom Gladdis          + 33.010s
15.  Alex Brundle         + 37.925s
16.  Henri Karjalainen    + 38.232s
17.  Jack Clarke          + 42.997s
18.  Ollie Hancock        + 47.618s
19.  Jason Moore          + 47.901s

Retirements:

     Sebastian Hohenthal  12 laps
     Pietro Gandolfi      6 laps
     Robert Wickens       4 laps
     German Sanchez       0 laps
     Jens Hoing           0 laps