Pizzonia takes another victory

After starting on the front row, the young Brazilian powered into the lead at the start of the race and stunned onlookers by pulling out a lead of over seven seconds in just five laps of the race. He was never challenged and eventually won by 11 seconds.

Manor Motorsport driver Pizzonia said his win was not as easy as it looked: "The start was not brilliant, but it was good enough. I was quick early on, but after seven or eight laps, my tyres were shot and I couldn't even push hard. It was an important win though, not just for me, but for the team, because we had a difficult time at the last round at Silverstone."

"Once I was ahead I just tried to take my time with the backmarkers," he said.

British ace Ben Collins had a disappointing race after starting from pole position. He lost the initiative to Pizzonia when the lights turned green and was forced out of second place with engine trouble early on.

This promoted his Carlin Motorsport team-mate Takuma Sato to second position. On a high after his magnificent win in the previous race at Silverstone, Sato resisted race-long pressure from rapid Indian Narain Karthikeyan to take the runner-up spot.

Karthikeyan was followed home by his Stewart Racing team-mate Tomas Scheckter, who staged a fine charge from ninth on the grid to score a vital batch of points as he attempts to keep the pressure on championship leader Pizzonia.

After pulling off a brave manoeuvre to pass Milos Pavlovic into Paddock Hill Bend, Scheckter repeated the move late in the race to jump ahead of Michael Bentwood.

It was business as usual for Gary Paffett in the Scholarship class, as the young Briton steered his Fred Goddard Racing Dallara F398-Renault to tenth overall to maintain his unbeaten run in this year's series.

Results from Brands Hatch:

1 Antonio Pizzonia Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda 30m43.445s
2 Takuma Sato Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda + 11.465s
3 Narain Karthikeyan Stewart Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda + 11.957s
4 Tomas Scheckter Stewart Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda + 18.586s
5 Michael Bentwood Fortec Dallara-Mugen Honda + 23.061s
6 Milos Pavlovic RC Motorsport Dallara-Speiss Opel + 30.045s
7 Martin O'Connell Rowan Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda + 33.010s
8 Gianmaria Bruni Fortec Dallara-Mugen Honda + 33.493s
9 Matt Davies Promatecme Dallara-Renault + 34.182s
10 Gary Paffett Fred Goddard Racing Dallara-Renault + 35.230s
11 Westley Barber ADR Dallara-Mugen Honda + 38.969s
12 Nicolas Kiesa RC Motorsport Dallara-Speiss Opel + 40.509s
13 Tor Sriachavanon ADR Dallara-Mugen Honda + 1m15.994s
14 Warren Carway Rowan Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda + 1m30.453s
15 Craig Fleming ME Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda + 1 lap
16 Ryan Walker Diamond Dallara-Mugen Honda + 1 lap
17 Mark Mayall Diamond Dallara-Mugen Honda + 1 lap
18 Christian Columbo Rowan Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda + 1 lap

Retirements:

Andrew Kirkaldy Team Avanti Dallara-Speiss Opel
Atsushi Katsumata Team Meritus Dallara-Toyota
Ben Collins Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda
Juan Manuel Lopez Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda
Andy Priaulx Promatecme Dallara-Renault