Martinez takes Brands pole for Sevilla

Former Formula Renault 3.5 star Martinez, whose form has been steadily improving of late but languishes near the bottom of the championship, defeated John Martin of Beijing Guoan by just 0.02s in a thrilling final. Martin had run wide at Paddock, and got sideways at Surtees, but his 1:13.876s was still a highly competitive laptime, but Martinez topped him with 1:13.856s.

"It's a very special moment," said Martinez. "It's my first time here but it's one of my favourite circuits now! It's very fast, very fluid. I've been unlucky this year, with lots of crashes and problems, but this is a great result for me and the team."

Martin said: "I'm just a bit disappointed, I messed up going into Surtees. We've been trying to dial out the oversteer all day, but to miss out by two hundredths is tough. It's a special track, I love it."

In the semi-finals, Martinez lapped even faster as his 1:13.624s effort knocked out title protagonist Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur), his lap just over a quarter of a second faster than the home hero.

Martin won the second semi, beating Sporting Lisbon's Andy Soucek by 0.287s despite again flirting with the Paddock gravel trap.

In the quarter finals, Dolby beat Franck Montagny (Bordeaux) by the dominant margin of 0.807s. Martin was effectively unopposed in his quarter final, as Julien Jousse (Roma) ground to a halt at Westfield on his flying lap with a technical problem.

Soucek beat Chris van der Drift (Olympiacos) by 0.152s, turning the lap around with a brilliant final sector after van der Drift had headed him early on. Series leader Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan) was the big name to fall at this stage, as his trip through the Paddock gravel trap gifted an easy win to Martinez.

In the pre-knockout stages, Martin topped Group A with a lap of 1:13.817s, a couple of hundredths clear of Martinez, Soucek and Montagny. The latter left it late to make it through to the knockout rounds, toppling Tristan Gommendy (Galatasaray) by 0.167s on his very last lap.

Gommendy was joined on the sidelines for the knock-out stages by Duncan Tappy (Flamengo), Davide Rigon (who paid for his practice crash this morning for Anderlecht), Robert Doornbos (ditto, for Corinthians) and Maria de Villota (Atletico Madrid).

In Group B, labelled the 'group of death' due to its strength in depth, Dolby produced a superb 1:13.399s - faster than anyone else all weekend - to beat van der Drift, Buurman and Jousse.

Those to fall were Max Wissel (FC Basel), Narain Karthikeyan (whose PSV Eindhoven ran onto the grass at Sheene), Alvaro Parente (FC Porto), a gutted James Walker (Liverpool) and Franck Perera (Lyon).

"Very disappointing," said Walker. "We tried a few things and it didn't deliver the pace we expected, and I just set the same time as I had this morning."

Pos Driver                  Team                    Time          Gap
 1. Marcos Martinez         Sevilla FC              1m13.856s
 2. John Martin             Beijing Guoan           1m13.876s  +0.020
 3. Andy Soucek             Sporting Clube          1m14.181s  +0.325
 4. Craig Dolby             Tottenham Hotspur       1m13.875s  +0.019
 5. Yelmer Buurman          AC Milan                1m18.155s  +4.299
 6. Chris van der Drift     Olympiacos              1m14.417s  +0.561
 7. Julien Jousse           AS Roma                 no time (in final)
 8. Franck Montagny         Girondins de Bordeaux   1m14.585s  +0.729
 9. Max Wissel              FC Basel                1m14.185s  +0.329
10. Tristan Gommendy        Galatasaray             1m14.133s  +0.277
11. Narain Karthikeyan      PSV Eindhoven           1m14.262s  +0.406
12. Duncan Tappy            Flamengo                1m14.292s  +0.436
13. Alvaro Parente          FC Porto                1m14.452s  +0.596
14. Davide Rigon            RSC Anderlecht          1m15.100s  +1.244
15. James Walker            Liverpool FC            1m14.464s  +0.608
16. Robert Doornbos         Corinthians             1m15.137s  +1.281
17. Franck Perera           Olympique Lyonnais      1m14.609s  +0.753
18. Maria de Villota        Atletico de Madrid      1m15.996s  +2.140