Molina wins maiden race at Estoril

Jousse maintained second place into the first corner, aided by a clash between the second row of championships rivals Ben Hanley and Alvaro Parente. Hanley somersaulted against the pitwall into retirement in the incident, while a delayed Parente survived to take sixth place on home soil.

Alvaro Barba had a lonely race, making good use of an early pit strategy to finish third, six seconds ahead of Dutchman Giedo van der Garde.

Hanley appeared to falter, momentarily, away from the start, allowing Parente to draw alongside. Bertrand Baguette joined the tussle, running three-abreast as he squeezed between Parente and the pitwall.

Hanley made an initial move across the road towards Parente, only for Alvaro to make a very small jink in Ben's direction. Touching wheels sent Hanley into a cartwheel, but the Prema car righted itself against the pitwall, before coming rest.

"I just felt a bang that sent me into a roll," said Hanley. "After the race I saw some television highlights and it looked to me like he (Parente) steered into me. It has not only ruined this race but means I have to start from the back tomorrow."

Molina opened up eight tenths of a second lead on the first lap from Jousse, Aleshin in third and Baguette closing in on the Russian in fourth. Parente completed the opening lap eighth place.

The leaders spread out early in proceedings; Molina lapped a steady four tenths of a second quicker than Jousse, who in turn was pulling a way at three tenths of a second a lap from Aleshin.

Barba pitted from seventh place on lap seven and Parente came in for service from his Tech 1 crew a lap later, rejoining in 18th.

Baguette's run in fourth looked in jeopardy when smoke spilled from the KTR car's left rear tyre on lap ten. Bertrand immediately brought the car in, but his stop did not go according to routine. A lengthy delay following a cross-threaded wheel nut put paid to any hopes the Belgian may have had of scoring points.

Molina made his stop at the end of lap eleven, enjoying a 5.2 seconds change and emerging in seventh place on the road.

The winner had his only moment of the race on rejoining the circuit, as cold tyres contributed to a big slide. "I didn't have a good balance with the tyres after the stop," said Miguel, "after that I just tried to conserve the car."

Jousse was also struggling with his handling and settled for second, some ten seconds adrift. "I had big oversteer," said Julien. "My car was definitely better in qualifying."

The last change for position among the front runners occurred with five laps remaining, as a loose wheel nut cruelly robbed Mikhail Aleshin of the final place on the podium.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver                Team                        Time
 1.  Miguel Molina         Pons Racing                 40:36.310
 2.  Julien Jousse         Tech 1 Racing               +  10.730
 3.  Alvaro Barba          International Draco Racing  +  16.669
 4.  Giedo van der Garde   Victory Engineering         +  22.151
 5.  Filipe Albuquerque    Epsilon Euskadi             +  22.654
 6.  Alvaro Parente        Tech 1 Racing               +  23.677
 7.  James Walker          Fortec Motorsport           +  24.558
 8.  Fairuz Fauzy          Cram Competition            +  25.109
 9.  Milos Pavlovic        International Draco Racing  +  27.533
10.  Clivio Piccione       RC Motorsport               +  28.037
11.  Marco Bonanomi        RC Motorsport               +  29.296
12.  Robert Wickens        Carlin Motorsport           +  30.187
13.  Davide Valsecchi      Epsilon Euskadi             +  30.765
14.  Frederic Vervisch     GD Racing                   +  31.621
15.  Pasquale di Sabatino  GD Racing                   +  33.604
16.  Michael Herck         Red Devil Team Comtec       +  37.540
17.  Carlos Iaconelli      Pons Racing                 +  38.873
18.  Richard Philippe      Fortec Motorsport           +  39.900
19.  Salvador Duran        Interwetten.com             +  42.518
20.  Bertrand Baguette     KTR                         +  42.740
21.  Daniil Move           Interwetten.com             +1:02.587
22.  Xavier Maassen        Prema Powerteam             +1:03.165
23.  Guillaume Moreau      KTR                         +1:03.385
24.  Pippa Mann            Cram Competition            +   1 lap
25.  Johannes Theobald     Eurointernational           +   1 lap
26.  Julian Theobald       Eurointernational           +   1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Driver                Team                        On Lap
     Mikhail Aleshin       Carlin Motorsport             23
     Alejandro Nunez       Red Devil Team Comtec          2
     Ben Hanley Prema      Powerteam                      1