Vergne wins fraught reverse grid race

Hitech's Gabriel Dias won on the road, but incurred a one-minute penalty for jumping the re-start of a race that was halted after two laps when Carlin's James Calado vaulted over team-mate Jazeman Jaafar at the Adelaide hairpin and beached his Dallara upside down in the gravel.

Jaafar had led initially from pole and appeared to jink right suddenly into Calado's path as the Brit tried to outbrake the Malaysian on lap three.

After a stoppage to free the unharmed Calado and retrieve his stricken car, the race re-started in the order the cars were running in at the time, minus Calado and Carlos Huertas (Raikkonen Roberston), who stalled at the first start and then retired.

Dias jumped Jaafar (and the start) from second on the grid and tore off into the lead. He built a 1.3-second cushion on the first lap as Jaafar tried desperately to fend off team-mate Vergne for second.

The Frenchman made light work of Jaafar on the run to Adelaide next time round and set off after Dias. He erased the gap within a lap, by which stage it became clear that Dias was under investigation by the stewards and would likely be penalised.

So it proved, but that message didn't reach Vergne before he tried to win the race on the road. He drove around the outside of Dias at Adelaide on the penultimate lap of the 10-minute sprint and completed the move by cutting the Nurburgring chicane as Dias tried to retaliate.

Having finally been informed of Dias' likely penalty, Vergne gifted the lead back to Dias into Adelaide on the final lap, no doubt in an effort to avoid a penalty of his own, and finished second on the road. When confirmation of a one-minute penalty for Dias came through, Vergne inherited victory, but he is also under investigation for not respecting the track limits.

That means Fortec's Oli Webb, who finished second on the road after a last lap pass on Jaafar, may yet inherit his second win of the weekend.

Pos Driver              Team           Car        Time/Gap
 1. Jean-Eric Vergne    Carlin         D/V      11m14.889s
 2. Oliver Webb         Fortec         D/M          +4.237
 3. Jazeman Jaafar      Carlin         D/V          +5.069
 4. William Buller      Hitech         D/V          +6.458
 5. Daisuke Nakajima    Raikkonen      D/M          +6.607
 6. Hywel Lloyd         CF/Manor       D/M          +6.977
 7. Felipe Nasr         Raikkonen      D/M          +7.152
 8. Lucas Foresti       Carlin         D/V          +7.602
 9. Daniel McKenzie     Fortec         D/M          +8.662
10. Jay Bridger         Litespeed      D/M          +9.164
11. R.Svendsen-Cook     Carlin         D/V          +9.735
12. Adriano Buzaid      Carlin         D/V         +13.740
13. Alex Brundle        T-Sport        D/V         +13.985
14. James Cole          T-Sport        D/H         +14.764
15. Rio Haryanto        CF/Manor       D/M         +18.775
16. Maxim Snegirev      Fortec         D/M         +19.120
17. Adderly Fong        Sino Vision    D/M         +20.055
18. Gabriel Dias        Hitech         D/V         +59.300
19. Menasheh Idafar     T-Sport        D/H          +1 lap

Not classified

    Carlos Huertas      Raikkonen      D/M          0 laps
    James Calado        Carlin         D/V          0 laps


Fastest lap, Vergne 1m35.378s