Giovanni Venturini wins hard-fought Auto GP race two at Oschersleben

The Italian started from pole under the reverse grid rules, but did not have to worry about the run down to the first corner as the first three laps of the race were held behind the safety car.

Once that retired however Venturini had to fend off a series of attacks led largely by Daniel de Jong, and as the lead pair battled Adrien Tambay and then Sergey Afanasiev also closed in, with just over two seconds separating the quarter heading into the final six laps.

Having never had a gap of more than 1s, Venturini was finally handed a reprieve on the last but one lap when de Jong went too deep into Hasseroder, running through the gravel and dropping to seventh in the process. He had earlier touched wheels with Venturini as the pair went down the main straight.

Tambay had also made contact with de Jong three laps previously, being pushed onto the grass and into a spin as he attacked on the outside going into Turn 1. The incident dropped Tambay to fourth, with race stewards announcing they would investigate de Jong after the race.

The big winner from both moments of contact was race one victor Afanasiev, who slotted into third when Tambay spun and then second when de Jong went off. He closed slightly on Venturini on the final lap, but could not challenge and finished second behind the Italian.

Tambay meanwhile secured a podium spot following de Jong's jaunt through the gravel, which also promoted Pasquale di Sabatino into fourth.

Formula Renault 3.5 race-winner Kevin Korjus hung on to fifth despite intense pressure from Kevin Ceccon, who was recovering from an earlier spin. Ceccon missed out on fifth by less than 0.2s, but moved into the championship lead - just one point ahead of Luca Filippi, who missed the weekend as he competes in GP2 in Hungary.

Having challenged for the lead for most of the race, de Jong finished seventh ahead of Samuele Buttarelli, with Fabrizio Crestani finishing ninth but one lap down.

Results - 17 laps:

Pos  Driver                Team       Time/Gap
 1.  Giovanni Venturini    Durango  30m25.268s
 2.  Sergei Afanasiev      DAMS       + 1.183s
 3.  Adrien Tambay         Campos     + 3.376s
 4.  Pasquale di Sabatino  TP         + 3.817s
 5.  Kevin Korjus          DAMS       + 5.913s
 6.  Kevin Ceccon          Ombra      + 6.099s
 7.  Daniel de Jong        MP        + 11.165s
 8.  Samuele Buttarelli    TP        + 30.388s
 9.  Fabrizio Crestani     Lazarus     + 1 lap
10.  Fabio Onidi           Lazarus     + 1 lap
11.  Adrian Campos Jr      Campos     + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Francesco Dracone     Emmebi      12 laps
     Giuseppe Cipriani     Durango     10 laps
     Bruno Mendez          Campos       2 laps