Magny-Cours 2: Montagny's double

Renault F1 test driver Montagny now has a championship lead of 50 points over Saulnier Racing's Bruno Besson, having won five out of the six races so far and picked up the maximum 42 this weekend with two fastest laps to complete the set.

The Frenchman started the second race from sixth but that became fifth after the fast-starting Narein Karthikeyan clashed with front-row man and former F1 driver Enrique Bernoldi. Karthikeyan got momentarily airborne in the incident but remained second behind pole sitter Bruno Besson. Bernoldi spun to the back of the pack.

Karthikeyan's front-end was damaged however and increasingly bad understeer would see him slip to fourth place in the ensuing laps. Montagny meanwhile made mincemeat of Stephane Sarrazin and Besson and once clear just drove away.

This left Sarrazin and Besson to fight out second. Besson stayed in front until mid-distance when Sarrazin pulled an audacious on the exit of the Melbourne Hairpin and that settled the fight. Bas Leinders was fifth ahead of Heikki Kovalainen sixth.

Franck Montagny Gabord Competición 42m31.086s
Stephane Sarrazin Racing Engineering +16.915s
Bruno Besson Salunier Racing +18.824s
Narein Kartikheyan Tata Team Carlin +19.684s
Bas Leinders Racing Engineering +23.876s
Heikki Kovalainen Gabord Competición +32.385s