Vergne leads Carlin podium sweep

The championship leader made a poor start and was jumped by team-mate James Calado on the run to La Source. Fortec's Oliver Webb then slipstreamed past the Frenchman on the run to Les Combes and Calado escaped as the title rivals fought.

Vergne overtook Webb on the run to Les Combes on the second lap and set about cutting into the impressive gap Calado had built up.

It took Vergne four laps to catch Calado and he then slipstreamed by on the run out of Eau Rouge. Calado remained close for the rest of the race, despite increasing understeer from his worn front tyres, but could not challenge Vergne.

"I'm really happy for Carlin," said the Frenchman. "We have a really good car here."

After Vergne passed him Webb fell back into the clutches of Carlin's Rupert Svendsen-Cook. The Fortec driver held his rival off for several laps before being overcome at half-distance.

Webb then had to hold off a charging Adriano Buzaid (Carlin), who had fought hard to come through from row five to secure fifth.

Prema's Daniel Juncadella was best of the Formula 3 Euro Series visitors as ART struggled. Traffic in qualifying limited Juncadella to 15th, but he charged through to 10th and just ran out of time to catch Hywel Lloyd.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Car     Time/Gap
 1.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Carlin               D/V   29m36.710s
 2.  James Calado          Carlin               D/V     + 1.114s
 3.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin               D/V    + 12.484s
 4.  Oli Webb              Fortec               D/M    + 13.407s
 5.  Adriano Buzaid        Carlin               D/V    + 14.234s
 6.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec               D/M    + 14.877s
 7.  Felipe Nasr           Raikkonen Robertson  D/M    + 17.232s
 8.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin               D/V    + 18.108s
 9.  Hywel Lloyd           CF/Manor             D/M    + 20.032s
10.  Daniel Juncadella     Prema                D/M    + 21.254s
11.  Carlos Munoz          Mucke                D/M    + 30.767s
12.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport              D/H    + 32.896s
13.  Alexander Sims        ART                  D/M    + 42.375s
14.  Nicolas Marroc        Prema                D/M    + 42.744s
15.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin               D/V    + 43.672s
16.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed            D/M    + 45.001s
17.  Jim Pla               ART                  D/M    + 47.815s
18.  Alex Brundle          T-Sport              D/V    + 49.024s
19.  Nathanael Berthon     ART                  D/M    + 49.541s
20.  Daisuke Nakajima      Raikkonen Robertson  D/M    + 50.565s
21.  James Cole            T-Sport              D/H    + 59.392s
22.  Maxim Snegirev        Fortec               D/M  + 1m04.850s
23.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision          D/M      + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Gabriel Dias          Hitech               D/V  5 laps
     William Buller        Hitech               D/V  3 laps
     Carlos Huertas        Raikkonen Robertson  D/M  0 laps