Bruni dominates race 1 at Imola

Bruni led away from pole and was never headed during the 37-lap race. He fended off a stiff challenge from Lewis Hamilton in the early stages before establishing a comfortable lead.

Even the intervention of the safety car failed to knock him off his rhythm and he made a great start to sprint away to victory.

Second looked set to go to Nelson Piquet Jr, but his car was hobbled in the late stages and he was powerless to hold off the impressive Michael Ammermuller.

Nicolas Lapierre also passed Piquet to make it two Arden drivers on the podium, while the erstwhile championship leader suffered further heartache when Alex Premat overtook him for fourth on the final lap.

Ernesto Viso collected sixth, while seventh went to Timo Glock, while Hiro Yoshimoto took the final point and pole position for race two. The Japanese had been in contention for a podium, but was forced to make a second pitstop, which dropped him back.

Hamilton was disqualified after passing the safety car, while Adam Carroll spun out while running sixth.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Bruni         Trident Racing            1h 01:13.889
 2.  Ammermueller  Arden International       +     10.907
 3.  Lapierre      Arden International       +     14.514
 4.  Premat        ART Grand Prix            +     15.713
 5.  Piquet Jr.    Piquet Sports             +     16.772
 6.  Viso          iSport International      +     19.669
 7.  Glock         BCN Competicion           +     47.806
 8.  Yoshimoto     BCN Competicion           +     48.208
 9.  Valles        Campos Racing             +     52.315
10.  Porteiro      Campos Racing             +     69.547
11.  Filippi       FMS International         +     83.448
12.  Monfardini    DAMS                      +     83.703
13.  Villa         Racing Engineering        +     87.070

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver        Team                      Laps
     Zuber         Trident Racing             30
     Gommendy      iSport International       30
     Fauzy         Super Nova International   29
     Carroll       Racing Engineering         26
     Tahinci       FMS International          25
     Hernandez     Durango                    25
     Negrao        Piquet Sports              13
     Perera        DAMS                       13
     Di Grassi     Durango                     7
     Pla           DPR                         7
     Lopez         Super Nova International    1
     Piccione      DPR                         0

Fastest lap: Valles, 1:35.261 on lap 13