Quaife-Hobbs claims fourth Auto GP victory of 2012 at the Algarve

The Briton was overtaken for the lead into Turn 1 by Campos Racing's Facu Regalia, but outbraked the Argentinian at the same spot on lap two.

Once ahead, Quaife-Hobbs demonstrated strong pace on used medium compound tyres, and was only troubled passing a stubborn, out of sequence, Francesco Dracone (Virtuosi UK) five laps from home.

Despite the slight scare, Quaife-Hobbs recorded a dominant nine-second margin of victory, the Super Nova racer extending his lead in the drivers' standings to 52 points over Pal Varhaug in the process.

The Norwegian's qualifying was disrupted by fuel issues that left him fifth on the grid, but the Virtuosi UK driver used an early pitstop to progress to second at the chequered flag.

"It's difficult to rank your wins, but I thought that was a really good race," said Quaife-Hobbs. "I had only managed to do four laps before suffering graining on my tyres before the race, but we managed to go nine laps on used tyres. It was unexpected. I would have stayed out longer but I wanted to cover off Pal in case there was a safety car."

Euronova Racing driver Sergey Sirotkin made Varhaug work hard for second. The fast- starting Russian exited the pitlane from his mandatory tyre change marginally ahead of Varhaug on lap 10, but on cold tyres was overtaken on the uphill run out of Turn 6.

Formula Abarth Europe champion Sirotkin maintained the fight, finishing 0.590s adrift of Varhaug at the chequered flag.

Quaife-Hobbs' Super Nova team-mate Victor Guerin made a relatively slow getaway from third on the grid. The Brazilian entered Turn 1 in fifth, but recovered ground on MLR 71 racer Sergio Campana when the Italian's early stop on lap five failed to pay off.

Early leader Regalia dropped behind Sirotkin when he ran offline, and would end the afternoon in sixth.

Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Driver               Team           Time/Gap
 1.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Super Nova   29m24.999s
 2.  Pal Varhaug          Virtuosi UK    + 9.044s
 3.  Sergey Sirotkin      Euronova       + 9.634s
 4.  Victor Guerin        Super Nova    + 13.573s
 5.  Sergio Campana       MLR 71        + 15.309s
 6.  Facu Regalia         Campos        + 16.833s
 7.  Daniel de Jong       Manor MP      + 17.283s
 8.  Chris van der Drift  Manor MP      + 18.143s
 9.  Juan Carlos Sistos   Zele          + 27.887s
10.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Ombra         + 31.322s
11.  Antonio Spavone      Euronova      + 41.759s
12.  Maxim Snegirev       Campos        + 52.007s
13.  Francesco Dracone    Virtuosi UK   + 55.729s

Retirements:

     Sten Pentus          Zele            13 laps
     Giuseppe Cipriani    Campos           0 laps
     Michele la Rosa      MLR 71           0 laps