Nunez scores maiden victory

Starting from third, the 23-year-old led every lap after surviving a contentious first corner in which the front row starters Charlie Kimball and Mikhail Aleshin tangled.

Milos Pavlovic finished 1.2 seconds adrift in second having stayed in touch with Nunez throughout. However, the Serb was unable to mount any serious bid for the lead, and will have to wait longer for his own first victory.

Sebastian Vettel took his second third place of the weekend to extend his championship lead, having withstood a committed effort from Ben Hanley.

"I honestly didn't expect this," said Nunez. "I planned to risk at the first corner, but I didn't know if I could overtake."

Aleshin put the power down well from the dustier side of the grid but under braking ran wide. His situation worsened as he was then shunted into a spin by an aggrieved Kimball.

"I have been unhappy for a while with the some of the driving standards," said Kimball. "At the start Nunez hit me in the sidepod which sent me into Aleshin."

Unfortunately for Kimball, his Victory mount's trackrod was damaged in the impact, and at the next left hander the delayed Kimball's stricken car speared into an unsuspecting Salavador Duran. Kimball continued only as far as the pits in order to retire, as Aleshin rejoined dead last.

At the end of the opening lap Nunez held a one second lead from Pavlovic, with Giedo van der Garde in third ahead of Julien Jousse, Vettel and Hanley.

Two laps later carnage broke out at the exit of the final corner. Jaap Van Lagen, replacing Celso Miguez at Eurointernatonal, was caught in a concertina effect avoiding a slower car.

Pons driver Molina clipped van Lagen's rear tyre in the incident, sending the Eurointernational car spinning across the track and into the path of Nurburgring winner Davide Valsecchi. Only Molina survived the incident, pitting for a new front wing while the safety car was deployed for four laps.

Nunez bunched the field up tightly on the restart, and Vettel took advantage to pass Jousse around the outside into the first corner for fourth.

Van der Garde was soon to lose third place after his push-to-pass button activated the pit lane rev-limiter on the next tour. He fell to sixth as Vettel, Hanley and Clivio Piccione swept through. 

After 14 laps Pavlovic took some respite from his pursuit of Nunez, as Vettel turned on the heat.

"I had 55 seconds worth of push-to-pass left as I forgot to use it yesterday," said Vettel. The extra revs failed to pay dividends as the order at the front remained unchanged until the flag.

"Push to pass doesn't really work here," said Hanley. "We have timed it and it is only worth two-thousandths of a second. It's also very difficult to get close to the car in front through the final corner."

The unfortunate Aleshin finished last despite giving 100%. The Russian rapidly ascended as high as 13th, but later rammed Pippa Mann under braking at Turn 1, before spinning with three laps remaining. 

Comtec boss Jonathan Lewis was understandably ebullient at the outcome.

"I'm delighted because we've done this with a genuine rookie, not an ex-GP2 driver stepping back," he said.

"It's also special because it's Nunez's engineer's, birthday. I hope everyone can shut up now and let us get on with our jobs. For all the people who said Comtec aren't the same this year, they can put this in their pipe and smoke it. We were good, and we will continue to be good."

Classified:
                    
Pos  Driver               Team                 Time
 1.  Alejandro Nunez      Comtec               43:08.583
 2.  Milos Pavlovic       Draco Racing          +  1.206
 3.  Sebastian Vettel     Carlin Motorsport     +  1.623
 4.  Benjamin Hanley      Prema Powerteam       +  2.616
 5.  Clivio Piccione      RC Motorsport         +  3.589
 6.  Giedo van der Garde  Victory Engineering   +  6.451
 7.  Julien Jousse        Tech 1 Racing         +  8.285
 8.  Felipe Albuquerque   Epsilon Euskadi       +  9.851
 9.  Guillaume Moreau     KTR                   + 10.260
10.  James Walker         Fortec Motorsport     + 11.733
11.  Pascale Di Sabatino  GD Racing             + 12.317
12.  Carlos Iaconelli     Pons Racing           + 36.856
13.  Xavier Maassen       Prema Powerteam       + 38.634
14.  Richard Philippe     Fortec Motorsport     + 39.399
15.  Miguel Molina        Pons Racing           + 39.653
16.  Ricardo Risatti      GD Racing             + 41.459
17.  Bertrand Baguette    KTR                   + 42.189
18.  Michael Herck        Comtec                + 43.023
19.  Daniel Move          Interwetten.com       + 44.246
20.  Michael Aleshin      Carlin Motorsport     + 50.644

Not classified:

     Driver               Team                  Laps
     Pippa Mann           Cram Competition      17
     Fairuz Fauzy         Cram Competition      16
     Alvaro Barba         Draco Racing          13
     Salvador Duran       Interwetten.com       13
     Alvaro Parente       Tech 1 Racing         12
     Marco Bonanomi       RC Motorsport         11
     Jaap van Lagen       EuroInternational     3
     Davide Valsecchi     Epsilon Euskadi       3
     Charlie Kimball      Victory Engineering   1