Hanley wins at wet Magny-Cours

The British driver dominated the race, pulling out a 25-second lead before spinning at the 150km/h entry into Estoril, after which he eased his pace. Hanley's victory has reduced Alvaro Parente's lead in the standings to seven points.

The conditions caught out much of the field, and just 12 of the 30 starters finished on the lead lap.

The fight for second place between pole-sitter Clivio Piccione and Davide Valsecchi provided the highlight of the race. Piccione's determined style, and rear brake problems, made a recipe for several spectacular slides. The gap between the pair fluctuated as heavy spray made lapping traffic a hazardous affair, both men having their share of off-track excursions. The less dramatic Valsecchi claimed the place after Piccione was slowed by a lengthy trip through the gravel.

Milos Pavlovic finished a distant fourth for Draco Racing, ahead of Giedo Van der Garde who edged out championship leader Parente for fifth by one second.

Piccione made a perfect start from pole position as his RC Motorsport teammate Marco Bonanomi, struggling for traction from his front row grid position, fell behind Hanley into the first corner.

Fairuz Fauzy battled wheel-to-wheel with David Valsecchi for fourth place around the Estoril corner onto the back straight, but was finally forced to concede position to the Italian. Fauzy continued to lose ground, tumbling down another three places to complete the opening lap in seventh place, before aquaplaning off the road on the next tour.

The Malaysian was not the first retirement, that 'honour' having gone to Fortec's Esteban Guerrieri. The Argentinean had demonstrated considerable pace in practice for his World Series debut, but having started in 21st fell foul of the worst of the visibility. Guerrieri slammed into the tyre wall at Estoril on the opening lap after parting company with his nosecone.

Piccione initially looked comfortable out in front, opening a four second lead over Hanley by lap three. Bonanomi lay third ahead of Valsecchi, Parente in fifth and Pavlovic rounding out the top six.

On lap five Hanley began to show his hand, scything off 1.2 seconds from Piccione's advantage. Two laps later the pair ran nose-to-tail over the start-finish straight, Hanley aided by a small mistake from Piccione into the Lycee. Struggling with his brake dramas, Piccione repeated the error at the completion of the lap and Hanley seized his chance. Once behind, Piccione had to contend with the thick wall of spray from the leader's car, and Hanley disappeared into the mist at a rate of three seconds per lap.

Hanley relinquished the lead for his mandatory stop on lap 11. The Italian Prema team were under no pressure given their driver's marked superiority, and changed the rear tyres in 7.4 seconds. Despite Piccione's RC squad turning around their man in 5.6 seconds on lap 12, it was not enough to prevent the Monegasque falling behind Valsecchi once the Italian driver had returned to the track from his pit stop on lap 14.

The spectacular Piccione took up the pursuit of Valsecchi with vigour, the bright red RC car following so closely in the Epsilon Euskadi's car's wheel tracks to be rendered barely visible. The worsening conditions finally got the better of Piccione's reactions at the Imola chicane, where he pirouetted into the gravel on lap 20, settling the battle in Valsecchi's favour.

The weather reduced the race from the scheduled 27 laps to what should have been a time-limited 25 laps. Strangely, the chequered flag was produced a lap early on lap 24, with provisional results given after 23 laps. The move meant Draco's Alvaro Barba lost his tenth place and pole for the reverse top ten grid race two. Instead it is set to be an all French row for local heroes Guillaume Moreau and Julien Jousse.

"Everything has gone well here, even with the weather," said Hanley. "When it started raining I wasn't too sure what to think, but the team made some changes to the car and it felt perfect as soon as I left the pits.

"Clivio set off at a good pace and I was happy to follow him and see if he made a mistake. When I took the lead I was just concentrating on staying on the road, but I spun! I thought to myself 'What an idiot' but I managed to save it and continue. There was so much aquaplaning that, as conditions became worse, I slowed up, and it paid off."

Classified:

Pos  Driver            Team                   Time
 1.  Benjamin Hanley   Prema Powerteam        42:34.029
 2.  Davide Valsecchi  Epsilon Euskadi        +  18.468
 3.  Clivio Piccione   RC Motorsport          +  25.902
 4.  Milos Pavlovic    International Draco    +  41.145
 5.  G.van der Garde   Victory Engineering    +  50.370
 6.  Alvaro Parente    Tech 1 Racing          +  51.870
 7.  Carlos Iaconelli  Pons Racing            +  58.917
 8.  Miguel Molina     Pons Racing            +1:01.320
 9.  Julien Jousse     Tech 1 Racing          +1:03.470
10.  Guillaume Moreau  KTR                    +1:20.577
11.  P.Di Sabatino     GD Racing              +1:21.955
12.  Alvaro Barba      International Draco    +1:32.462
13.  Alejandro Nunez   Red Devil Team Comtec  +   1 lap
14.  Daniel Move       Interwetten.com        +  2 laps

Not classified:

     Driver            Team                   Laps
     Mikhail Aleshin   Carlin Motorsport      18
     Xavier Maassen    Prema Powerteam        16
     Julian Theobald   EuroInternational      14
     A.Ciompi          EuroInternational      13
     M.Ammermuller     Carlin Motorsport      12
     Pippa Mann        Cram Competition       12
     Marco Bonanomi    RC Motorsport          11
     Charlie Kimball   Victory Engineering    11
     James Walker      Fortec Motorsport      11
     Salvador Durán    Interwetten.com        11
     Luiz Razia        GD Racing              11
     B.Baguette        KTR                    9
     Michael Herck     Red Devil Team Comtec  2
     Fairuz Fauzy      Cram Competition       1
     F.Albuquerque     Epsilon Euskadi        1
     E.Guerrieri       Fortec Motorsport      0