Maldonado takes fourth season win

The Venezuelan led home pole-sitter Tristan Gommendy by more than 17 seconds in a race that started wet and dried throughout.

Gommendy battled spiritedly with Borja Garcia, despite being handicapped by running a full wet set-up.

Ryo Fukuda finished a fine fourth, having benefited from a first corner shunt to move from 21st on the grid to seventh by the end of the opening lap.

"I took a big risk before the start of the race by going for a dry set-up," said Maldonado. As the track dried, so Maldonado's Draco machine came to the fore.

"My story was the exact opposite of Pastor's," said Gommendy. "I opted for the wrong set-up. It was my choice, so I have to accept it, but the clouds were looking threatening again before the start.

"Anyway, I think it's an achievement to come into such a strong series, with no testing, and be on the podium."

The race was declared wet despite the weather having relented prior to the start. With pitstops mandatory between laps five and seventeen, the field opted to start on wet tyres. Unfortunately neither of the KTR cars made it to the grid.

"Sean McIntosh had a fuel pump problem so he non-started," said KTR team boss Kurt Mollekens, "and then Robbie (Kerr) had a hydraulic problem with the gearbox which forced him to start from the pitlane."

Maldonado dropped back from his front row position on the green, and as the field headed up to the Dunlop Chicane for the first time Gommendy was leading from Victory's Alvaro Parente. On the greasy surface mayhem broke out.

Parente speared straight-on across the gravel trap, and championship leader Andy Soucek followed him in. Unlike Parente, Soucek entered sideways and was immediately beached.

Any thoughts Soucek may have held about rejoining were swiftly dashed as his Interwetten.com car was piled into by Milos Pavlovic, Gavin Cronje and Greg Franchi who had tangled amongst themselves.

"Pavlovic tagged me," said series debutant Cronje. "It's been a very short race, but I've enjoyed the experience. Qualifying tenth in the wet was good and at least South Africa won the A1 GP (with countryman Adrian Zaugg)."

Race one winner Alx Danielsson managed to bring his Comtec car back to the pits sporting damaged front suspension, but rejoined the race eleven laps down.

The safety car was brought out for three laps as the wreckage was cleared, the order of the top six being Gommendy from Garcia; Alvaro Barba in third; Pastor Maldonado; Miguel Molina and Celso Miguez.

Racing resumed on lap three, and the Spaniards Alvaro Barba and Molina each took a trip through the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane. Maldonado picked up third as a result and Celso Miguez also benefited, moving into fourth.

There was more action at Dunlop on lap six. Maldonado passed Garcia for second in a clean manoeuvre and set about closing on Gommendy.

Further back, James Rossiter, another delayed in the first corner shunt, tagged the back of fellow Briton Robbie Kerr.

The contact necessitated pitstops for Rossiter, who required a new front wing, and Kerr to change a punctured rear tyre.

Maldonado closed the gap to Gommendy down to 0.6 seconds by lap eleven, as Garcia was left six seconds adrift.

On the following tour, Maldonado got the power down well on the exit of the Raccordement corner and edged a nose in front of Gommendy. The two cars ran side-by side down the length of the pit straight before Maldonado finished the deed into Dunlop.

Maldonado pitted on lap fourteen for slicks, his stop taking 8.1 seconds, and dropped only to third place. Garcia closed in on Gommendy for the lead, before pitting in unison on lap sixteen.

Gommendy kept his position relative to Garcia, but Maldonado was now seven seconds up the road and pulling away.

Garcia moved alongside Gommendy on several occasions but, with the Sartrouville driver locking his brakes and becoming ragged, Borja chose to back off.

"The car was good throughout the race," said RC driver Garcia," but I had to be careful with Tristan. We raced very close for a few laps, but I have to think about the championship."

Davide Valsecchi was a man on the move in the final stages, working his way up into fifth and surviving punting Alvaro Barba into retirement along the way.

Valsecchi's Epsilon Euskadi teammate Steven Kane was tenth after electrical problems paralysed his car in qualifying. Team-boss Joan Villadelprat thought Kane could have been even higher.

"Steven had really good pace," said Villadelprat, "it was looking like a top-four was possible. Unfortunately the ignition went off for him during race and he lost a lot of time."

In another case of 'what might have been', Ben Hanley had been circulating with fourth place man Fukuda before a lengthy pit-stop dropped the Cram driver down the order.

The race, a showcase for Renault, took place in front of 90,000 people on Sunday, with Saturday's sprint race attracting 70,0000.

Maldonado's result moves him within three points of Soucek's championship lead as the series heads to its climax in Barcelona on October 29th.

Garcia, Parente, and Danielsson remain in contention in what is set to be a five-way title showdown.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver            Team                 Time
 1.  Pastor Maldonado  Draco Multiracing    46:16.505
 2.  Tristan Gommendy  Pons Racing          +  17.007
 3.  Borja Garcia      RC Motorsport        +  21.492
 4.  Ryo Fukuda        Tech 1 Racing        +  38.953
 5.  Davide Valsecchi  Epsilon Euskadi      +  39.095
 6.  Celso Miguez      Comtec               +  42.375
 7.  Patrick Pilet     Tech 1 Racing        +  52.471
 8.  Bruce Jouanny     RC Motorsport        +1:02.068
 9.  Eric Salignon     Interwetten.Com      +1:02.745
10.  Steven Kane       Epsilon Euskadi      +1:03.064
11.  Alvaro Parente    Victory Engineering  +1:08.273
12.  Carlos Iaconelli  GD Racing            +1:10.573
13.  Hayanari Shimoda  Victory Engineering  +1:13.769
14.  C. Montanari      Prema Powerteam      +1:17.372
15.  Miguel Molina     GD Racing            +1:18.392
16.  P. di Sabatino    Cram Competition     +1:24.783
17.  James Rossiter    Pons Racing          +1:25.131
18.  Marco Barba L.    Jenzer Motorsport    +  1 Lap
19.  Mehdi Bennani     Eurointernational    +  1 Lap
20.  Ben Hanley        Cram Competition     +  2 Laps
21.  Robbie Kerr       KTR                  +  2 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver            Team                Laps
     Marcos Martinez   Eurointernational    23
     Michael Aleshin   Carlin Motorsport    22
     Alvaro Barba      Jenzer Motorsport    19
     Alx Danielsson    Comtec               16
     Andy Soucek       Interwetten.Com       0
     Gavin Cronje      Carlin Motorsport     0
     Milos Pavlovic    Draco Multiracing     0
     Gregory Franchi   Prema Powerteam       0
     Sean Mcintosh     KTR                 DNS

Fastest lap: Maldonado, 1:27.514 on lap 23