Mortara dominates qualifying race

The Signature driver did not make the best of getaways from the grid, losing the lead to fast-starting team-mate Daniel Abt on the run through Mandarin, but he was back in front by the time they got into Lisboa.

While there was chaos behind the leaders, as James Calado and Alexander Sims crashed spectacularly on the exit of Mandarin, Mortara kept his head down and built up a comfortable lead.

At the end of lap one he was 2.1 seconds clear of Abt and pulled another second clear the following time around.

On lap three, Laurens Vanthoor moved up to second with a dive past Abt into Lisboa. But, although the Belgian was able to chip away at Mortara's lead, the gap soon stabilised and the pair crossed the finish line 2.3 seconds apart.

While the two men at the front had fairly lonely races, the fight for third was more wide open - as Abt found himself under intense pressure from Prema's Roberto Merhi over the first half of the 10-lap race. On lap eight, Merhi got past with an aggressive move around the outside into Lisboa.

Then, a lap later, Valtteri Bottas's pressure on Abt forced the German to brake later for Lisboa and when Merhi left the inside open, both Abt and Bottas dived ahead. Later that lap, Merhi slowed and dropped down the order. He eventually parked his car on the slowing down lap with a right rear puncture after being classified 22nd.

Bottas, who started on the front row, could not find the pace to challenge the leading Signature cars and finished fourth - ahead of Marco Wittmann, Renger van der Zande and Jean-Eric Vergne.

Pos Driver                    Team         Car            Time/Gap
 1. Edoardo Mortara           Signature    D/V  10 laps/22m14.842s
 2. Laurens Vanthoor          Signature    D/V              +2.342
 3. Daniel Abt                Signature    D/V              +9.414
 4. Valtteri Bottas           Prema        D/M              +9.647
 5. Marco Wittmann            Signature    D/V             +18.766
 6. Renger van der Zande      Motopark     D/V             +20.001
 7. Jean-Eric Vergne          Carlin       D/V             +20.709
 8. Carlos Huertas            Hitech       D/V             +21.312
 9. Antonio Felix da Costa    Carlin       D/V             +26.268
10. Daniel Juncadella         Prema        D/M             +27.576
11. Felix Rosenqvist          Performance  D/V             +31.265
12. Felipe Nasr               Raikkonen    D/M             +35.510
13. Jazeman Jaafar            Carlin       D/V             +36.516
14. Rio Haryanto              Raikkonen    D/M             +43.046
15. Lucas Foresti             Fortec       D/M             +50.375
16. Carlos Munoz              Hitech       D/V             +50.894
17. Yuji Kunimoto             TOM's        D/T             +51.266
18. Rafael Suzuki             TOM's        D/T             +52.066
19. William Buller            Fortec       D/M             +53.481
20. Yuhi Sekiguchi            Three Bond   D/N             +53.732
21. Hideki Yamauchi           Hanashima    D/T             +53.956
22. Roberto Merhi             Prema        D/M             +55.035
23. Adderly Fong              Sino Vision  D/M             +56.503
24. Michael Ho                Raikkonen    D/M           +1m03.691
25. Kimiya Sato               Motopark     D/V              +1 lap

Retirements:

    A.Imperatori              Toda         D/H              8 laps
    Hywel Lloyd               CF/Manor     D/M              2 laps
    Oliver Webb               Fortec       D/M              0 laps
    James Calado              Carlin       D/V              0 laps
    Alexander Sims            Raikkonen    D/M              0 laps


Fastest lap, Vanthoor 2m11.934s