Pavlovic takes race 2 at Estoril

Clivio Piccione led the race from pole position but was denied his first win of the season when Pavlovic out-braked the Monegasque into Turn One at mid-distance.

Fairuz Fauzy finished third for Cram Competition. The Malaysian ran wheel-to-wheel with Piccione on both the inside and outside of Turn One in his attempt to wrestle away second, but settled for third when his car's handling deteriorated.

Giedo van der Garde repeated his result from race one by finishing fourth, ahead of Filipe Albuquerque and Alvaro Barba.

"I hope to put pressure on (points leader Alvaro) Parente for the championship in Barcelona," said Milos. "I'm just really happy to be in this position.

"This year we have struggled in qualifying, but today we saved one set of new tyres for the race. As the laps progressed my car remained strong, and it was a clean race with Clivio which I enjoyed very much."

Pavlovic challenged Piccione down the inside of Turn One from the start, but remained second on the opening lap. Fauzy held third place from Van der Garde and Parente.

James Walker dropped to seventh behind Albuquerque at the Parabolica Interior after running wide. Also losing ground was race one winner Miguel Molina, who fell five places from his tenth place grid slot.

In the mid-field Bertrand Baguette and Carlos Iaconelli became the first retirements, tangling at Turn Two. Iaconelli pulled to the side of the road with a damaged right-hand side-pod and a flat front-right tyre.

"I tried to overtake Carlos but he didn't see me," said Bertrand. "The crash results from the long pit-stop I had yesterday. When you start from 20th you have to go for it."

On a circuit where passing proved a severe challenge, Alvaro Barba shone with his overtaking displays. Having initially fallen to 12th, the Spanish Draco driver passed Julian Jousse around the outside of Turn One on lap two and disposed of David Valsecchi for 10th at the same spot a lap later.

Marco Bonanomi proved more stubborn in his attempts to remain eighth, but Barba braved a clash of wheels with the Italian to steal another position on lap eight.

At the front, Pavlovic's advantage of fresh tyres became evident on lap 12. Milos cut three tenths a lap into Piccione, and closed in on the Monegasque's gearbox around the long final corner, the Parabolica Ayrton Senna.

On the next tour Pavlovic picked up a useful slipstream from the RC Motorsport car, and dived through on the inside at Turn One. Clivio tried to position his car for a run back at Milos on the exit of the corner, but the Serbian was cleanly away.

With his tyres suffering, Piccione became fodder for Fauzy and changed his line down the main straight to fend off his pursuer. The move earned Clivio a warning from the stewards, but Fauzy himself was experiencing a worrying vibration.

"The balance of my car in Turn One worsened after the middle of the race," said Fauzy, "I decided to settle for the podium and take the points."

The Portuguese drivers Parente and Albuquerque were involved in a similarly hard fought dice for fifth. The battle ended prematurely when Parente, under pressure from the Red Bull driver, ran wide and off the road on the exit of Turn Two.

Alvaro also lost two further places to Walker and Barba in the excursion. With six laps remaining Walker's fading rear tyres caught him out too, and at the Gaucho corner the man from Jersey had a half-spin, slipping to 18th.

Pavlovic's victory affords him the slimmest of chances of winning the championship at the final meeting in Barcelona on October 28th.

Ben Hanley was unable to make much progress from starting last, having being race one's first retirement, but won two points by setting fastest lap.

Hanley now has a 22-point deficit to Parente in the drivers' standings with 35 points still available at Barcelona.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver               Team                        Time
 1.  Milos Pavlovic       International Draco Racing  40:16.424
 2.  Clivio Piccione      RC Motorsport               +   5.114
 3.  Fairuz Fauzy         Cram Competition            +   6.261
 4.  Giedo van der Garde  Victory Engineering         +   7.072
 5.  Filipe Albuquerque   Epsilon Euskadi             +   7.566
 6.  Alvaro Barba         International Draco Racing  +   8.239
 7.  Alvaro Parente       Tech 1 Racing               +  14.434
 8.  Marco Bonanomi       RC Motorsport               +  16.654
 9.  Julien Jousse        Tech 1 Racing               +  17.718
10.  Robert Wickens       Carlin Motorsport           +  18.037
11.  Davide Valsecchi     Epsilon Euskadi             +  19.406
12.  Guillaume Moreau     KTR                         +  19.878
13.  Richard Philippe     Fortec Motorsport           +  24.959
14.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin Motorsport           +  26.062
15.  Pippa Mann           Cram Competition            +  26.502
16.  Michael Herck        Red Devil Team Comtec       +  36.188
17.  Salvador Duran       Interwetten.com             +  42.800
18.  Daniil Move          Interwetten.com             +  47.488
19.  Johannes Theobald    Eurointernational           +1:10.596
20.  James Walker         Fortec Motorsport           +1:14.104
21.  Pasquale di Sabatino GD Racing                   +1:27.962
22.  Alejandro Nunez      Red Devil Team Comtec       1    lap
23.  Ben Hanley           Prema Powerteam             3    laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Driver               Team                        On Lap
     Miguel Molina        Pons Racing                   20
     Frederic Vervisch    GD Racing                     19
     Julian Theobald      Eurointernational             17
     Xavier Maassen       Prema Powerteam               12
     Bertrand Baguette    KTR                            1
     Carlos Iaconelli     Pons Racing                    0

Fastest Lap: Ben Hanley, 1:26.925 on lap 21