Bottas wins, Mortara clinches title

Bottas streaked away from the field to win by 22 seconds from his ART team-mate Alexander Sims. The Finn, who had not won a Saturday race in the Euro Series before this weekend, was in control from the start. And his race was made easier when Sims went off at the fast esses towards the end of lap four.

Sims then spent the rest of the race fending off Motopark Academy's Antonio Felix da Costa, who took his first Saturday podium of the season after winning the previous three Sunday races.

Daniel Juncadella (Prema) joined the pursuit of Sims in the early laps before dropping back. Behind him, Mucke driver Roberto Merhi had to settle for fifth.

The Spaniard had challenged Sims for second on the way into the first corner at the start, but he was then shuffled back as he was on the outside for Turn 2.

Mortara, who had finished no worse than second in Saturday races before this weekend, was a further 10s adrift of Merhi in sixth.

That was enough for him to take the title though, as his Signature team-mate Marco Wittmann needed to outscore him by two points to keep the title fight alive.

Wittmann chased Mortara throughout the race, after the pair had started on the fifth row together. They disposed of Jim Pla (ART) and Carlos Munoz (Mucke) at the start, and then gained another place when their team-mate Laurens Vanthoor was given a drive-through penalty for not lining up correctly in his grid box.

Munoz held off a charge from Pla in the closing laps to hang on to eighth place, and pole position for race two on Sunday.

Pos  Driver                  Team       Car     Time/Gap
 1.  Valtteri Bottas         ART        D/M   30m16.369s
 2.  Alexander Sims          ART        D/M    + 22.141s
 3.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Motopark   D/V    + 22.788s
 4.  Daniel Juncadella       Prema      D/M    + 27.448s
 5.  Roberto Merhi           Mucke      D/M    + 30.137s
 6.  Edoardo Mortara         Signature  D/V    + 40.615s
 7.  Marco Wittmann          Signature  D/V    + 41.423s
 8.  Carlos Munoz            Mucke      D/M    + 42.538s
 9.  Jim Pla                 ART        D/M    + 43.217s
10.  Nicolas Marroc          Prema      D/M    + 43.804s
11.  Matias Laine            Motopark   D/V    + 56.528s
12.  Tobias Hegewald         Motopark   D/V  + 1m17.817s
13.  Laurens Vanthoor        Signature  D/V     + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Renger van der Zande    Motopark   D/V  7 laps