Guerrieri triumphs after epic battle

The result sets up a thrilling three way title decider for the Barcelona finale. Both men will be out to reel in championship leader Mikhail Aleshin, who endured a drama filled day. The Carlin man finished out of the points after twice being punted into spins, but was fortunate to pick up 12th after narrowly surviving a collision with a backmarker.

The final laps of today's race were among the most exciting of the season. Following the mandatory pitstops, ISR's Guerrieri was faced with a five second deficit to leader Ricciardo.

The Argentinean clawed his way back on terms, passing Ricciardo at The Loop on the penultimate lap. Ricciardo immediately stole the position back, only for Guerrieri to claim the lead for keeps at Brooklands two corners later.

"I think we were both struggling for tyres, it was like a rally in the last couple of laps." said a pumped up Guerrieri. "We lost 15 points yesterday, now we have come back with a win, and that's all that counts."

Ricciardo's second place closes him to within three points of Aleshin in the points race, but the Red Bull Formula 1 reserve driver was unusually subdued having come so close to victory.

"After the pitstops, I thought that's it, unless something falls off the car I should win," said Ricciardo. "But I was held up by a couple of people, and couldn't then find my rhythm immediately when I finally did get by."

Ricciardo's Tech 1 team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne continued his excellent adaptation to the category by netting the final spot on the podium.

Guerrieri's ISR stable-mate Filip Salaquarda edged out KMP's Anton Nebylitskiy for fourth place, while Daniel Zampieri put a controversial weekend behind him with a fine sixth for Pons Racing.

Front row starter Brendon Hartley (P1) was among those to make contact with Aleshin. The Kiwi was forced very wide at Vale on the opening lap by a charging Vergne, and later tagged Aleshin at the new complex.

Greg Mansell was a first-lap retirement. The Comtec driver's rear wing was removed in an accident with Carlin's Spa pole-sitter Jake Rosenzweig.

Pos  Driver             Team                Time/Gap
 1.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR               46m02.792s
 2.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1              + 0.575s
 3.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Tech 1              + 7.589s
 4.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR                + 13.357s
 5.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP                + 14.052s
 6.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons               + 15.165s
 7.  Brendon Hartley    P1                 + 19.805s
 8.  Sten Pentus        Fortec             + 20.665s
 9.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi    + 23.504s
10.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus       + 24.682s
11.  Julian Leal        Draco              + 29.391s
12.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin             + 33.800s
13.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec             + 37.713s
14.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi    + 38.630s
15.  Walter Grubmuller  P1                 + 42.042s
16.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten    + 45.417s
17.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec             + 50.543s
18.  Federico Leo       Pons             + 1m01.230s
19.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     + 1m02.237s
20.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           + 1m38.763s
21.  Victor Garcia      KMP              + 1m39.199s

Retirements:

     Nathanael Berthon  Draco            15 laps
     Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  2 laps
     Greg Mansell       Comtec           1 lap