Baguette closes on title with victory

Assisted by the retirement of nearest pre-race challenger James Walker, the Draco driver has extended a 42 point lead over Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver Jaime Alguersuari, with just 46 points available over the final three races.

Polesitter Daniil Move (P1) was relieved of the lead by Baguette on the inside of the Veedol Chicane on lap eight. While Move backed up the field, Baguette made a break and took a comfortable victory by 4s.

"I think it was quite a good operation by me to win the race while going for the championship," said a delighted Baguette. "I had made a horrible start, and was briefly P3, but Jon Lancaster made a mistake in front of me and I was able to quickly recover the position. I hope to put the championship in my pocket tomorrow."

A charging Fairuz Fauzy recovered from a poor opening lap, in which he briefly dropped to seventh, to take third position on the road at the chequered flag. Fortec driver Fauzy was then promoted another step on the podium after a 10s penalty was applied to Lancaster for dangerous driving.

An eventual ninth place was a bitter result for Lancaster. The Comtec driver had set the fastest lap during an attacking drive, but a defensive manoeuvre squeezing Oliver Turvey towards the pitwall attracted the attention of the race officials.

Both Lancaster and Fauzy had negotiated a way past Move into the quick RTL Kurve. Move backed off slightly in the closing laps as a sprinkling of rain greased the track, but was extremely satisfied to claim his maiden podium in European competition when Lancaster's penalty was applied.

"My target was the podium," said Move. "I have been waiting for this result for many years, and I want to present my trophy to the team because they recently lost all of their cups in the factory fire.

"I must also dedicate this result to a Russian friend of mine, another driver, who was killed in an accident five years ago. I promised his father that I would do this when I made the podium."

In fourth and fifth, Carlin twins Turvey and Alguersuari were separated by one second at the finish. Walker had been close behind them before his car ground to a halt late in the race.

Tech 1 Racing's Charles Pic hounded Alguersuari across the line, while the Toulouse squad's sister machine of Brendon Hartley spent the afternoon playing catch-up after the Kiwi was tapped into a spin by SG's Guillaume Moreau at Turn 1 on the opening lap.

Interwetten's Salvador Duran, making his maiden appearance in the championship this season, was unable to take the start following a technical problem on the formation lap.

Early season points leader Marcos Martinez rode over the back of Filip Salaquarda's stationary Prema car at the start of the second lap, sustaining heavy damage to his Pons machine in the impact and causing a brief safety car period. Martinez is now mathematically unable to win the championship.

Baguette now leads the championship on 122 points, with Alguersuari second on 80 and Walker and Pic joint third on 79.

                    
Pos  Driver                Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Bertrand Baguette     Draco            45m01.920s
 2.  Fairuz Fauzy          Fortec             + 3.999s
 3.  Daniil Move           P1                 + 6.698s
 4.  Oliver Turvey         Carlin             + 7.164s
 5.  Jaime Alguersuari     Carlin             + 8.165s
 6.  Charles Pic           Tech 1             + 8.776s
 7.  John Martin           Comtec            + 11.633s
 8.  Marco Barba           Draco             + 12.376s
 9.  Jon Lancaster         Comtec            + 12.484s
10.  Pasquale di Sabatino  RC                + 13.069s
11.  Guillaume Moreau      SG                + 16.045s
12.  Anton Nebylitskiy     SG                + 18.286s
13.  Brendon Hartley       Tech 1            + 18.495s
14.  Chris van der Drift   Epsilon Euskadi   + 28.750s
15.  Mihai Marinescu       Interwetten       + 32.991s
16.  Keisuke Kunimoto      Epsilon Euskadi   + 34.126s
17.  Julian Leal           Prema             + 38.753s
18.  Federico Leo          Pons              + 39.323s

Retirements:

     James Walker          P1               15 laps
     Sten Pentus           Fortec           8 laps
     Filip Salaquarda      Prema            1 lap
     Marcos Martinez       Pons             1 lap
     Salvador Duran        Interwetten      0 laps