Ekstrom wins shortened first race

The Swedish driver took advantage of his pace over the rest of the field by making his two mandatory pitstops earlier than anyone else to get clear track and set quick laptimes.

The race had been red flagged after a heavy crash involving Tom Kristensen, Alexandre Premat, Susie Stoddart and Adam Carroll at Turn 2.

Kristensen spun in front of the majority of the field coming out of the corner, and as he attempted to correct the spin he was hit hard by Premat and Stoddart, while Carroll also clipped the Audi.

The race was stopped for nearly 30 minutes as Kristensen and Premat required medical attention, although both were reported to be awake and communicating with medical staff before they were taken to hospital.

Martin Tomczyk had led briefly at the start of the race before he locked up at the hairpin and lost two places, but he snatched second place on the final lap from Bruno Spengler, who was struggling with power steering problems in the closing stages.

The Canadian then tagged Timo Scheider into a spin coming out of the Mercedes arena, which forced the German driver down to 10th place.

Spengler's car was damaged, and he only held onto third place because Daniel La Rosa and Alexandros Margaritis slowed to follow him across the line in their 2006-spec Mercedes.

Paul di Resta eventually finished sixth after he led much of the race, but the Scottish driver lost out by leaving both of his pitstops to very late in the race.

The reigning Formula Three Euro Series champion had shown good pace when he was shadowing Spengler in the early part of the race, and he inherited the lead when the Canadian pitted.

Results

Pos  Driver             Make              Time
 1.  Mattias Ekstrom    Audi      1h 10:16.441
 2.  Martin Tomczyk     Audi           + 3.826
 3.  Bruno Spengler     Mercedes       + 6.850
 4.  Daniel La Rosa     Mercedes       + 7.057
 5.  Alex Margaritis    Mercedes       + 8.451
 6.  Paul Di Resta      Mercedes       + 9.036
 7.  Jamie Green        Mercedes      + 10.913
 8.  Bernd Schneider    Mercedes      + 13.743
 9.  Gary Paffett       Mercedes      + 14.460
10.  Timo Scheider      Audi          + 16.859
11.  Mika Hakkinen      Mercedes      + 17.271
12.  Lucas Luhr         Audi          + 33.245
13.  Mike Rockenfeller  Audi          + 33.801
14.  Mathias Lauda      Mercedes      + 36.139
15.  Vanina Ickx        Audi

Not classified:

     Christian Abt      Audi
     Adam Carroll       Audi
     Tom Kristensen     Audi
     Alexandre Premat   Audi
     Susie Stoddart     Mercedes