Carbone's win delays title wrap-up

From fifth on the grid, Carbone had charged to head of the pack by lap nine, and now consolidates his runner-up position in the championship.

Van der Garde brought his P1 Motorsport car home in eighth, but requires only three points from tomorrow's feature race, the equivalent of an eighth place finish, to clinch his first championship in motor racing.

"That was a really hard race," said Fabio. "I think everyone was struggling with their rear tyres, and there was no grip at the end. Giedo is really close to winning the championship but we will keep on fighting until it is not possible to win anymore."

Pons racer Marcos Martinez led from the opening lap, before succumbing to pressure from Carbone with a mistake on lap nine.

Martinez gathered himself together to hold off a feisty Alvaro Barba for second position at the flag. However, Martinez was subsequently penalised 25 seconds for a questionable manoeuvre on pole-sitter Marco Bonanomi away from the start-line.

The Spaniard moved to his right and made contact with the slow starting Bonanomi, sending the Comtec driver into the path of Bertrand Baguette. Bonanomi retired with broken front right suspension in the incident.

"I have spent 15-20 minutes talking with the stewards and they decided that I changed my line too aggressively," said Martinez. "They recognised, though, that it wasn't my intention to cause an accident."

Bonanomi added glumly: "We have lost another race with an accident caused by someone with no sense. It was a rookie error from Martinez. There are 25 cars at the start of the race and it was lucky not to be a much bigger accident. Baguette was so close to rolling when I touched wheels with him."

Robert Wickens, Julien Jousse and Carbone's Ultimate-Signature team-mate Esteban Guerrieri completed the top six.

Classified:

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Fabio Carbone      Ultimate Signature   40:17.752
 2.  Alvaro Barba       Prema Powerteam      +   4.020
 3.  Robert Wickens     Carlin Motorsport    +   5.149
 4.  Julien Jousse      Tech 1 Racing        +   6.506
 5.  E.Guerrieri        Ultimate Signature   +   7.852
 6.  Marco Barba        Draco Racing         +  17.338
 7.  Miguel Molina      Prema Powerteam      +  19.665
 8.  G.van der Garde    P1 Motorsport        +  22.660
 9.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin Motorsport    +  23.040
10.  F.Albuquerque      Epsilon Euskadi      +  23.591
11.  Marcos Martinez    Pons Racing          +  28.461
12.  Fairuz Fauzy       Fortec Motorsport    +  38.391
13.  Pablo Sanchez      Interwetten.com      +  40.792
14.  Duncan Tappy       RC Motorsport        +  41.166
15.  Aleix Alcaraz      Pons Racing          +  42.085
16.  Salvador Duran     Interwetten.com      +  46.141
17.  Siso Cunill        KTR                  +  56.549
18.  C.Cantelli Jr      RC Motorsport        +  59.012
19.  Sergei Afanasiev   KTR                  +1:29.888
20.  A.Marsoin          Epsilon Euskadi      +  3 Laps

Not Classified:

     Driver             Team               Laps
     James Walker       Fortec Motorsport   17
     Pippa Mann         P1 Motorsport        6
     B.Baguette         Draco Racing         5
     Charles Pic        Tech 1 Racing        3
     Marco Bonanomi     Comtec               1

Fastest lap: Barba, 1:28.083 on lap 7