Monza, race 1: Montagny holds on to win

When Sarrazin was slow away from pole position, Narian Kartikeyan moved into the lead. But the Indian driver wasn't to stay there long, with Montagny getting a better entry into the first corner and emerging ahead. Having complained of a lack of speed in qualifying, Montagny elected to start on a new set of tyres and their extra grip helped him to pull away over the early laps.

With Kartikeyan suffering form an abcess in his back that gave him massive pain if he clattered the kerbs, Sarrazin soon found himself back in second place. Thereafter, he set off after Montagny but wasn't quite close enough to challenge by flagfall.

There had been trouble in their wake, with Heikki Kovalainen being hit by Angel Burgueno on the run to the first chicane on the opening lap, with others being delayed as they scattered in their wake, withn Jean-Christophe Ravier also being taken out and Bas Leinders having to limp back to the pits. This left the way clear for Marc Gene to finish in fourth place and for Bruce Jouanny to hang on to claim fifth after race-long pressure from Cristiano "Tuka" Rocha.


1 Franck Montagny (Gabord Competicion)
2 Stephane Sarrazin (Racing Engineering)
3 Narain Karthikeyan (Carlin Motorsport)
4 Marc Gene (Campos Motorsport)
5 Bruce Jouanny (Carlin Motorsport)
6 "Tuka" Rocha (Zele Racing)