Parente wins, Danielsson takes title

Danielsson's championship is subject to the outcome of various appeals in progress. Pastor Maldonado finished second after leading until the pit-stops, while pole-sitter Sean McIntosh came in five seconds behind the winner in third.

Danielsson's Spanish title rivals failed to benefit from a home advantage. Pre-race points leader Andy Soucek damaged his nose avoiding an accident between Robbie Kerr and James Rossiter at the first turn, and was delayed four laps while pitting for repairs.

Borja Garcia never managed to get on terms with Danielsson and slipped to ninth after running wide through the gravel at the New Holland corner with four laps remaining.

"Two months ago there was no way in hell we were going to win this," said Danielsson. "To come back and score 88 points in five meetings is a fairy-tale that I'll be telling for the rest of my life. I have to say a big thank you to my Comtec team.

"Towards the end there was no radio traffic, they stopped giving me my lap-times and I just had a pit-board counting down the laps. I knew what they were doing, and when I crossed the line, finally, Roly (Vincini), my engineer, came on the radio and said 'you're champion.'"

Sean McIntosh was delayed with too much wheelspin at the start and was immediately passed by Maldonado and Parente. McIntosh was forced to defend heavily from the attentions of Danielsson, but the Swede decided to take a cautious approach with the championship to think of.

Tristan Gommendy's second outing with Pons ended in the gravel trap at the end of lap one, following an over-ambitious overtaking attempt from Alvaro Barba.

Christian Montanari benefited most from the Kerr/Rossiter first corner melee to move into seventh, from twelfth on the grid, by the end of the first lap. Kerr made it back out on track to gain a point for fastest lap.

On lap two Montanari disposed of Garcia for fifth, in an impressive showing by the Prema driver. "Today was a beautiful race," said Montanari, "I just pushed, pushed, pushed."

The pit-stop window opened on lap five. Adrian Zaugg, running fourth, and the following Danielsson, took the opportunity to come in. Danielsson's stop was faster, and the Swede moved ahead of Zaugg as the pair rejoined in 17th and 18th.

Maldonado came in from the lead at the end of lap nine, with Garcia following him in from fifth. Parente thus inherited the lead before pitting on the next tour. The Victory crew changed Parente's left-hand tyres in 6.5 seconds, enough to jump their man ahead of Maldonado, and effectively seal the win.

When the pit-stop window closed on lap 17, the order was Parente leading Maldonado by 3.2 seconds, McIntosh in third a further 1.5s adrift, Montanari, Danielsson and Zaugg.

Zaugg's race ended three laps later when a mechanical failure struck the 19 year old South African's Carlin machine.

"The boys did a good pit-stop today," said Parente. "It's good to win after three really bad weekends."

Pastor Maldonado was magnanimous on the podium, but the Venezuelan's face failed to hide his disappointment.

"It's been a fantastic season for me," said Maldonado, "always fighting at the front and for the championship. There is still the appeal (against disqualification from victory in Misano) to come, but all I want to say now is 'thank you' to my team and congratulations to Alx."

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver            Team                     Time
 1.  Alvaro Parente    Victory                  39:39.948
 2.  Pastor Maldonado  Draco                    +   2.814
 3.  Sean McIntosh     KTR                      +   5.266
 4.  C.Montanari       Prema                    +   6.367
 5.  Alx Danielsson    Comtec F3                +  16.281
 6.  Franck Perera     Interwetten              +  25.956
 7.  Benjamin Hanley   Cram                     +  30.422
 8.  Steven Kane       Epsilon                  +  31.295
 9.  Borja García      RC                       +  42.528
10.  Miguel Molina     GD                       +  51.358
11.  Bruce Jouanny     RC                       +1:01.428
12.  Oliver Jarvis     Victory                  +1:01.792
13.  Michael Aleshin   Carlin                   +1:02.400
14.  Carlos Iaconelli  GD                       +1:03.182
15.  Alvaro Barba      Jenzer                   +1:10.101
16.  Marco Barba       Jenzer                   +1:11.951
17.  Nil Montserrat    EuroInternational        +  1 lap
18.  Milos Pavlovic    Draco                    +  2 laps
19.  Patrick Pilet     Tech 1                   +  3 laps

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver            Team                    Laps
     Celso Miguez      Comtec                   22
     Greg Franchi      Prema                    22
     Andy Soucek       Interwetten              22
     Davide Valsecchi  Epsilon                  21
     Adrian Zaugg      Carlin                   18
     James Rossiter    Pons                     18
     P.Di Sabatino     Cram                      9
     Robbie Kerr       KTR                       9
     Ryo Fukuda        Tech 1                    8
     Alberto Valerio   EuroInternational         3
     Tristan Gommendy  Pons                      1

Fastest lap: Robbie Kerr, 1:29.277 on lap 9