Hanley takes decisive Barcelona win

The Englishman was squeezed towards the pit wall by pole-sitter Alejandro Nunez at the start, the front row drivers' squabbling leaving the path clear for KTR's Bertrand Baguette to take the lead into the first corner.

Hanley found a way past Nunez for second place around the outside of Turn 1 on lap six, and repeated the manoeuvre for the lead five laps later.

Once ahead, Hanley hammered home his advantage to win the final meeting of the year by 10.2 seconds.

The biggest drama for the Renault Development Driver occurred when the lapped Giorgio Mondini lost control and spun in front of his Prema Powerteam car.

"We had a two point advantage over Milos Pavlovic coming into this race, so I knew we had to do well," said Hanley.

"We were unfortunate not to get by Alejandro at the start, but he defended his line and it is his to defend. Afterwards I was able to pass people without putting too much pressure on myself. People say you are only as good as your last race so I think this has worked out well."

Milos Pavlovic steered clear of a first corner fracas, which accounted for the retirement of Giedo van der Garde, to move up from seventh to fourth.

The position initially came under attack from newly crowned champion Alvaro Parente, but fellow Portuguese Filipe Albuquerque was in close attendance. On lap 17 the gap from Pavlovic in fourth to Albuquerque sixth was covered by 0.9 seconds.

Filipe benefited from a strong tow on the following lap to pass Parente around the outside of Turn 1. Pavlovic held off the season's top rookie by under half-a-second at the chequered flag.

Parente didn't appear too disappointed with sixth, and together with Hanley indulged in an exultant series of donuts on the slowing down lap in front of the Circuit de la Catalunya's main grand stand.

Mikhail Aleshin started from the pit-lane owing to clutch problems on the grid, while Alvaro Barba also failed to take his place at the start when his Draco gearbox electronics necessitated a reset.

Barba recovered to set the fastest lap, his second of the weekend, but retired after heavily flat spotting front tyres in a massive brake lock up at the La Caixa corner.

Classified:

Pos  Driver            Team                        Time
 1.  Benjamin Hanley   Prema Powerteam             41:40.176
 2.  B.Baguette        KTR                         +  10.295
 3.  Alejandro Nunez   Red Devil Team Comtec       +  15.214
 4.  Milos Pavlovic    International Draco Racing  +  16.245
 5.  F.Albuquerque     Epsilon Euskadi             +  16.739
 6.  Álvaro Parente    Tech 1 Racing               +  17.633
 7.  Salvador Duran    Interwetten.com             +  19.593
 8.  Fairuz Fauzy      Cram Competition            +  20.812
 9.  Davide Valsecchi  Epsilon Euskadi             +  23.047
10.  James Walker      Fortec Motorsport           +  23.945
11.  Robert Wickens    Carlin Motorsport           +  27.003
12.  F.Vervisch        GD Racing                   +  39.276
13.  Mikhail Aleshin   Carlin Motorsport           +  45.076
14.  Daniel Move       Interwetten.com             +  55.566
15.  Miguel Molina     Pons Racing                 +  56.217
16.  Michael Herck     Red Devil Team Comtec       +  56.489
17.  Xavier Maassen    Prema Powerteam             +1:35.733
18.  Julian Theobald   EuroInternational           +   1 Lap
19.  Julien Jousse     Tech 1 Racing               +   1 Lap
20.  Richard Philippe  Fortec Motorsport           +   1 Lap
21.  Carlos Iaconelli  Pons Racing                 +   1 Lap
22.  Clivio Piccione   RC Motorsport               +   1 Lap

Not classified:

     Driver            Team                        Laps
     Alvaro Barba      International Draco Racing   19
     Giorgio Mondini   EuroInternational            14
     P.Di Sabatino     GD Racing                     9
     Guillaume Moreau  KTR                           6
     Marco Bonanomi    RC Motorsport                 5
     Alberto Valerio   Victory Engineering           4
     Pippa Mann        Cram Competition              4
     G.van der Garde   Victory Engineering           -

Fastest lap: Barba, 1:34.120 on lap 18