Aleshin wins wet race one in France

The Carlin driver staged an entertaining scrap for the lead with polesitter Esteban Guerrieri over the first half of the race, eventually squeezing ahead at the start of lap 13. Once through, Aleshin produced a convincing display in wet conditions to win by 14.9 seconds.

Guerrieri held off Stefano Coletti for second place, and now moves into second position in the drivers' standings, three points ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. The Argentinean struggled throughout the race with his ISR machine's low-downforce wet set-up, and was upset in the closing laps about an absence of blue flags to alert backmarkers to his presence.

Prior to losing the lead, Guerrieri had come under severe pressure from Aleshin. The leaders ran wheel-to wheel through the fast Estoril corner, leading onto the back-straight, on lap ten. Two laps later, Aleshin was alongside again entering the Nurburging chicane. Guerrieri only maintained his lead by virtue of cutting the corner, and received a warning flag for not respecting track limits. Before the lap was out, Guerrieri missed the apex of the final chicane and was defenceless as Aleshin powered by on the approach to the pit straight.

Coletti was one of a number of drivers to make use of the wet conditions and make huge gains on a lowly starting position. From 11th on grid, the Monegasque was fifth at the first corner and third by the completion of the opening lap. The result makes up for the Comtec man's missed opportunity at the last round at Brno, where he spun at the first corner, and provides relief after a worrying number of gyrations on the way to today's grid.

Nelson Panciatici put on a strong showing on home ground. The Junior Lotus Racing driver benefited from a mistake by Coletti to briefly hold third, before making the similar error and running into the gravel at Chateau d'Eau. Panciatici had sufficient margin over the fifth-placed car to maintain his position.

With Aleshin still well clear out in front, the battle for fifth was one of the highlights of the closing stages. Fresh from a Ferrari Formula 1 test last week, Ferrari Academy driver Daniel Zampieri eventually claimed the position for Pons Racing. The Italian worked his way up from 16th on the grid, in a repeat of his excellent wet weather performances at Motorland and Spa-Francorchamps.

Sten Pentus and Albert Costa were both in contention to claim the position. Costa, who suffered a poor start from the inside of the front row, was passed by a recovering Pentus for sixth at the final corner on lap 19.

That the Estonian was even in the hunt for points was remarkable. The Fortec driver had started from 21st after damaging the underside of his car in qualifying. The only blot on Pentus's incredible drive came when he shoved Costa fully onto the grass at Estoril, allowing Daniel Ricciardo into what would become sixth place.

Pentus later fell back three positions after a collision with Nathanael Berthon that sent the Frenchman spinning.

Sixth place qualifier Jon Lancaster also made up incredible ground after being forced to make a pitlane start when his car failed to move on the parade lap. Lancaster took a deserved point for 10th.

Pos  Driver             Team                  Result
 1.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin            47m06.881s
 2.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              +   14.891s
 3.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           +   16.918s
 4.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     +   24.776s
 5.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             +   37.663s
 6.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           +   42.897s
 7.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           +   43.942s
 8.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  + 1m04.189s
 9.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            + 1m16.258s
10.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           + 1m20.780s
11.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              + 1m23.053s
12.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     + 1m24.004s
13.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           + 1m36.968s
14.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  + 1m50.788s
15.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              +     1 lap
16.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  +     1 lap
17.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  +     1 lap
18.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           +     1 lap
19.  Victor Garcia      KMP              +    3 laps

Not classified

     Jan Charouz        P1                   21 laps
     Federico Leo       Pons                 16 laps
     Julian Leal        Draco                14 laps
     Walter Grubmuller  P1                   10 laps
     Brendon Hartley    Tech 1                0 laps