Pavlovic takes maiden win

Pavlovic crossed the line a mere tenth of a second in the lead, after an intense duel to the finish with Ben Hanley.

Entering the Bus-Stop chicane on the last lap, a defensive Pavlovic squeezed out Hanley, who was given the choice of back off, crash or cut the chicane.

Hanley chose the last option and rejoined ahead of Pavlovic, but eased off over the line to give the Serbian his first triumph in three seasons in the category.

Salvador Duran was in close attendance to pick up the pieces had Hanley and Pavlovic made contact. The Mexican driver finished third, half a second behind.

The top six was rounded out by Filipe Albuquerque, making his way up to fourth from 12th on the grid; Giedo van der Garde in fifth; and yesterday's winner Alvaro Parente.

Parente is now one point behind Sebastian Vettel's championship lead.

"This weekend started really badly, especially when you consider I qualified 17th," said Pavlovic. "We had to try to change everything, the engine, the ride-height, the set-up and the wings.

"I had 11 seconds of push-to-pass left over from yesterday, and I used one or two seconds to keep Ben behind each lap. At the last corner I wasn't going to give up nineteen laps in the lead.

"Under braking, the rear of my car wanted to swing around so I had to go to the inside, and there was no way Ben could overtake around the outside."

The race had produced confusion even before the start, when pole-sitter Michael Ammermueller crashed at Rivage on his way to the grid.

Marco Bonanomi effectively inherited the pole slot, albeit with Brazilian Carlos Iaconelli on the favoured inside line into the La Source hairpin.

Iaconelli and Bonanomi entered the La Source hairpin side-by-side, but Pavlovic concentrated on his exit and catapulted by both of them on the run down to Eau Rouge.

Bonanomi's attempt to dispose Iaconelli of third ended when the Italian ran into the gravel at the off-camber Rivage corner on the opening lap. Iaconelli himself was to have a short-lived race, pulling into the pits on lap two.

Having found a way through on Giedo van der Garde, Hanley was up to second on lap three, 1.5 seconds behind Pavlovic.

Van der Garde was falling back, with Duran slipstreaming the Dutchman into Les Combes on lap five, and Parente following suit down the inside of the Victory machine for fourth on lap six.

However, Parente's charge was stilted by a massive brake lock-up into La Source two tours later and van der Garde was able to claim his position back.

Hanley closed in on the Draco driver at approximately two tenths of a second a lap, until by lap nine he was just 0.08 seconds behind.

On lap 12, Hanley got a nose ahead on the 250km/h run down to Les Combes, but Pavlovic defended sternly. At the following Malmedy corner Pavlovic was still under attack, chopping ruthlessly across Hanley's nose.

"My car was terrible in left hand corners," said Hanley. "Someone hit me at the start and bent something in the rear.

"I was losing time in the middle sector, but on the last lap I used three seconds of push-to-pass so I wouldn't lose any ground, and then braked ridiculously late at the Bus-Stop.

"I had to think about the championship, though, at the last corner, second and third are good results for the weekend."

Classified:

Pos  Driver            Team                   Time
 1.  Milos Pavlovic    International Draco    42:33.556
 2.  Benjamin Hanley   Prema Powerteam        +   0.196
 3.  Salvador Duran    Interwetten.com        +   0.685
 4.  F.Albuquerque     Epsilon Euskadi        +   8.180
 5.  G.van der Garde   Victory Engineering    +  12.090
 6.  Alvaro Parente    Tech 1                 +  14.026
 7.  Michael Aleshin   Carlin Motorsport      +  15.344
 8.  Alejandro Nunez   Red Devil Team Comtec  +  16.426
 9.  P.Di Sabatino     GD                     +  22.729
10.  Davide Valsecchi  Epsilon Euskadi        +  24.500
11.  Miguel Molina     Pons                   +  25.266
12.  Michael Herck     Red Devil Team Comtec  +  51.915
13.  Pippa Mann        Cram Competition       +  54.926
14.  Julien Jousse     Tech 1                 +  55.524
15.  Clivio Piccione   RC Motorsport          +1:00.056
16.  Daniel Move       Interwetten.com        +1:05.112
17.  Alvaro Barba      International Draco    +1:22.490
18.  A.Ciompi          EuroInternational      +   1 Lap

Not classified:

     Driver            Team                 Laps
     Ricardo Risatti   GD                    16
     Xavier Maassen    Prema Powerteam        6
     Charlie Kimball   Victory Engineering    6
     Carlos Iaconelli  Pons                   2
     James Walker      Fortec Motorsport      2
     Fairuz Fauzy      Cram Competition       2
     Marco Bonanomi    RC Motorsport          1

Fastest lap: Piccione, 2:06.037 on lap 14