Baguette wins race one at Spa

Long time race leader Salvador Duran had to settle for second place after Baguette snatched victory with a manoeuvre around the outside of the Mexican at the Bus Stop chicane with three laps remaining.

Guillaume Moreau rounded out the podium for Belgian team KTR having endured intense pressure from Marco Bonanomi in the closing laps.

French team Tech 1 Racing had a particularly black day, and face hefty repair bills after their rookie driver Charles Pic rolled his car at Les Combs, and Julien Jousse crashed at the 160mph Blanchimont sweep following contact with championship leader Giedo van der Garde.

Miguel Molina inherited the pole through qualifying eighth fastest in the Superpole session. The Spaniard's get-away from fellow front row starter Salvador Duran into the La Source hairpin was judged to have been a little too perfect, and Molina was called in for a drive through penalty for possibly anticipating the start.

The 26 cars failed to funnel through La Source without tripping over each other. Carlin's Robert Wickens was tagged into a spin, while Borja Garcia had half of his front wing removed in the confusion. Both were able to continue. James Walker was less fortunate, and became the first retirement after finding himself caught up in the contretemps.

Baguette had lost out to Jousse at the start, and was bumped down to fifth place at the Bus Stop by van der Garde on the opening lap. Molina entered the pit-lane, in order to serve his penalty, two tours later, handing the lead to Duran.

The first five cars circulated closely, just three seconds covered Duran, Jousse in second, van der Garde, Baguette and Guillaume Moreau in fifth. Jousse was eight tenths of a second faster than Duran in clean air, and was swiftly forcing the Interwetten.com driver to cover the inside line into Les Combes.

The first appearance of the safety car was brought about following Charles Pic's attempted passing manoeuvre on the inside of Marcos Martinez at Les Combes. Pic tagged Martinez's right-rear wheel, causing the Spanish Pons driver to drift wide, shaving the edge of the grass.

As the Pons driver returned to the track he drifted into Pic's path. Pic was unable to avoid a second banging of wheels, and the impact forced the Frenchman's car upside down and into a roll. Baguette's Draco team-mate Marco Barba also retired in the incident, finding the barriers in avoiding action.

On the restart, Jousse locked up a front right tyre into La Source, and fell into the clutches of the chasing van der Garde. Van der Garde picked up a tow on Jousse on the exit of Stavelot, and moved to the outside to prepare for an overtaking move on the approach to Blanchimont.

The protagonists touched wheels, sending van der Garde across Jousse's bows and into a high-speed spin. Van der Garde came to rest on the inside of the corner with a punctured left rear tyre, while Jousse rapidly ran out of road as he approached the fearsome corner off line. The Frenchman stood no chance of recovering, and travelled across the run off and into the barriers, smashing the front-right corner off his car.

"It was wheel-to-wheel, and quite close (to apportion blame)," said the following Baguette. "I was very happy to see two cars go off ahead of me, it was nice for a race to come to me for a change."

The safety car was necessitated once more while the wreckage was attended to. Baguette had been promoted to second place as a consequence of the shunt, ahead of Moreau and Mikhail Aleshin.

The race restarted on lap 15 of the 20 lap affair. Baguette pulled level with Duran for the lead at Les Combes on the next tour, before finishing the job by leaving his braking until the last moment at the Bus Stop on the completion of the next lap.

Moreau took less time to find a way passed Duran, braving it around the outside at the following corner, La Source. With poor straight line speed, KTR man Moreau failed to hold onto the position, and was an easy target for Duran at the race's most productive overtaking point, Les Combes, on lap 17.

Marco Bonanomi finished fourth, and will start race two from pole-position. Mikhail Aleshin and the rapidly improving Alex Marsoin completed the top-six.

Pos Driver                  Team                 Time    
 1. Bertrand Baguette       Draco           47:46.817  
 2. Salvador Duran          Interwetten        +2.598  
 3. Guillaume Moreau        KTR                +4.243  
 4. Marco Bonanomi          Comtec             +4.529  
 5. Mikhail Aleshin         Carlin             +5.796  
 6. Alex Marsoin            Epsilon            +6.902  
 7. Maximo Cortes           Pons               +7.604  
 8. Pablo Sanchez           Interwetten        +8.651  
 9. Miguel Molina           Prema              +9.458  
10. Mario Romancini         Epsilon           +11.045  
11. Daniil Move             KTR               +13.915  
12. Claudio Cantelli        Ultimate          +15.261  
13. Pasquale di Sabatino    Comtec            +15.444  
14. Robert Wickens          Carlin            +15.830  
15. Fabio Carbone           Ultimate          +16.386  
16. Pippa Mann              P1                 +1 Lap  
                                                       
Not Classified:                                        

    Driver                  Team                 Laps
    Julian Theobald         Fortec            15 laps  
    Julien Jousse           Tech 1            11 laps  
    Giedo van der Garde     P1                11 laps  
    Charles Pic             Tech 1             8 laps  
    Marcos Martinez         Pons               8 laps  
    Marco Barba             Draco              8 laps  
    Aleix Alcaraz           RC                 7 laps  
    Borja Garcia            RC                 1 laps  
    James Walker            Fortec             0 laps  
    Alvaro Barba            Prema                 DNS 
    
    
Fastest lap, van der Garde 2:05.783 on lap 3