Vergne wins again in final race

After an entertaining early tussle with Carlin team-mate James Calado, the Red Bull-backed French driver moved ahead decisively at the Club chicane at the end of the third lap, just before backmarkers Adderley Fong (Sino Vision) and Max Snegirev (Fortec) crashed at the same corner.

Vergne had begun to stretch away immediately, but a lengthy safety car period to remove the wrecked cars and repair the barriers bunched the field.

The 2009 Formula Renault Eurocup runner-up managed the lap 12 restart to perfection and stole an immediate half-second march on Calado as racing resumed.

Vergne set the pace throughout and pulled away comfortably as Calado fell back into the clutches of a much racier-looking Oli Webb (Fortec) through the middle portion of the race.

Webb gained revenge for his race two defeat at the hands of Calado by outbraking his ex-Formula Renault UK rival round the outside at Club on lap 20. He set off after Vergne, but could not match the Frenchman's searing pace and finished just under eight seconds adrift.

Calado completed the podium, a further 1.8 seconds back, comfortably clear of Carlin team-mates Adriano Buzaid and Rupert Svendsen-Cook.

Raikkonen Robertson Racing's Felipe Nasr rounded out the top six, ahead of countryman Lucas Foresti (Carlin), with whom he crashed while battling for the lead of this morning's reversed grid race.

Jay Bridger took a spirited eighth for Litespeed, while Fortec's Daniel McKenzie recovered well to ninth after stalling at the start and pitting for repairs after an incident at the chicane.

T-Sport's Alex Brundle scored his best result of the weekend by completing the top 10. Team-mate Menasheh Idafar took the National Class honours in 11th place, after Hitech's Will Buller tipped team-mate Gabriel Dias into a spin at the final corner on the last lap of the race.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Car    Time/Gap
 1.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Carlin               D/V  40m52.546s
 2.  Oli Webb              Fortec               D/M    + 7.896s
 3.  James Calado          Carlin               D/V    + 9.694s
 4.  Adriano Buzaid        Carlin               D/V   + 12.535s
 5.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin               D/V   + 16.484s
 6.  Felipe Nasr           Raikkonen Robertson  D/M   + 19.409s
 7.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin               D/V   + 21.039s
 8.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed            D/M   + 28.428s
 9.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec               D/M   + 29.534s
10.  Alex Brundle          T-Sport              D/V   + 35.146s
11.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport              D/H   + 41.895s
12.  William Buller        Hitech               D/V   + 41.901s
13.  Carlos Huertas        Raikkonen Robertson  D/M   + 42.580s
14.  Daisuke Nakajima      Raikkonen Robertson  D/M   + 53.181s
15.  James Cole            T-Sport              D/H    + 2 laps

Retirements:

     Gabriel Dias          Hitech               D/V  32 laps
     Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin               D/V  11 laps
     Hywel Lloyd           CF/Manor             D/M  3 laps
     Adderly Fong          Sino Vision          D/M  2 laps
     Maxim Snegirev        Fortec               D/M  2 laps