Burti scrapes to victory

The Brazilian fended off fierce attacks from erstwhile title leader Marc Hynes and Jenson Button to take his third win of the season for the Stewart Racing Dallara-Mugen Honda team.

Burti was driving with a replacement engine after his original sprung a head gasket fault in yesterday's qualifying sessions. He felt that the powerplant was too new to be totally effective, and was forced to drive a defensive race to convert pole position into a race win.

On the third lap Hynes made a big move into the Esses, but was forced off the road and rejoined the track in the path of the unfortunate Matt Davies. That allowed Button to vault to second in his Promatecme Dallara-Renault. The teenager then attacked Burti on the following lap at the Esses, only to spin down to last on exit.

Hynes closed the gap again to Burti, putting him under immense pressure until the appearance of the safety car, which came out when Yudai Igarashi beached his car on the kerbs after spinning at Russell.

Burti got away best for the final six-lap sprint to the flag, holding off another challenge to defeat Hynes's Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen.

'After the last race at Silverstone this is the best result I could have had,' said the Brazilian. 'We put the spare engine in and for sure it wasn't very good. Marc and Jenson were able to catch me a lot on the straights. Then after a while my car became okay and I was able to keep consistent.'

Davies equalled his best result of the season after seeing off Andrew Kirkaldy in an incident which ended with the Scot spinning at Riches. The Essex man's Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mugen clung onto Burti and Hynes, but was unable to make a move.

Through from 10th on the grid to fourth came the second Fortec Dallara of Kristian Kolby, who made fantastic progress after an incident-packed qualifying to finish only two seconds behind the race winner.

A last-lap clash between Toby Scheckter and Aluizio Coelho ended the battle for fifth. The South African smashed into the barriers on the entry to Riches and was taken to hospital for precautionary X-rays.

It was a bad race too for Narain Karthikeyan. The title outsider stalled his Carlin Dallara momentarily at the start, but he then refired it, only for the start delayed signal to be given. The Indian was miffed to be shunted to the back of the grid, and had to battle through a midfield war zone before taking seventh behind Martin O'Connell and Doug Bell.

Further spins for Button and Kirkaldy meant that neither would score any points. The latter retired while Button finished in 11th position.

Results from Snetterton: