Brands 2: Piquet dominates chaotic race

Piquet took the lead from pole, although he was chased hard by Robert Doornbos. The two quickly left the rest of the field behind, pulling out a clear margin.

However, chaos broke out on the third lap, as Michael Keohane slowed with a puncture. As he trailed round to the pits, Tor Graves lost control of his car while trying to overtake Keohane. The Manor start spun, then speared heavily into team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Graves fractured his wrist in the shunt, while Hamilton was taken to hospital with a concussion.

After a lengthy red flag, the race was re-started, with overall results to be determined on an aggregate time of the two parts. Doornbos fluffed his start, and dropped down to fourth behind Carlin duo Jamie Green and Alan van der Merwe. Although Doornbos was unable to get past for the rest of the race, his speed in the short first section of the race was enough to ensure that he claimed second overall behind Piquet.

The Scholarship class title fight ended in some acrimony. Ernesto Viso was leading the class on the first lap of the restarted race, but was hit in the back at the hairpin on the first lap, breaking his front-wing. This allowed title rivals Steven Kane and Karun Chandhok to close dramatically.

With Viso needing to finish first or second to claim the crown, he started weaving dramatically to keep the T-Sport duo behind him. Eventually though, both had a run on him into Paddock, Kane round the outside, Chandhok down the inside. Viso ran wide through the corner, hit Kane and took both out of the race, ensuring that he won the crown.

Kane, who missed out on a £100,000 prize if a British driver won the Scholarship class, felt that Viso had taken him out deliberately, although the new champion maintained that he was simply suffering from understeer without a front wing.

Nelson Piqet Piquet Sports
Robert Doornbos Menu
Jamie Green Carlin
Alan van der Merwe Carlin
Billy Asaro P1 Motorsport
Robert Dahlgren Fortec
Will Davison Menu
Eric Salignon Hitech
Richard Antinucci Promatecme
Ronnie Bremer Carlin