Race 1: Pla wins for Carlin
Carlin Motorsport's Olivier Pla led home a one-two result in Portugal this morning. The first World Series by Nissan race at Estoril fell to the Frenchman, who led home his team-mate Tiago Monteiro for his first series victory. Monteiro is the local hero, but had to make do with a very close second after losing his pole position advantage at the start.
After Pla led into the first turn, the race was settled. Although Monteiro was quicker, he was sensible about trying to overtake his team-mate. Carlin operates a policy of no team orders, and Monteiro could come away satisfied with a good points score, especially after championship leader Heikki Kovalainen (Pons Racing) ruined his morning with a stall on the formation lap grid.
Kovalainen had to start from the back, got a drive-through for his mechanics staying on the grid too long, and then an incident with Enrique Bernoldi necessitated a nose-cone change. He picked up two points for fastest lap, but that was all.
With Narain Karthikeyan (RC Motorsport) spinning out early on, and Jean-Cristophe Ravier (Epsilon Euskadi) doing the same as he tried to outbrake Adrian Valles for third, the battle for the last podium spot was played out a long way behind the Carlin pair.
Valles was struggling, but kept his head and third place throughout. He endured major pressure from Tristan Gommendy and Sergio Hernandez, both of Saulnier Racing, but there was no change to the flag. Hernandez is in just his second series race, as is Julien Vidot, who came home sixth.
Olivier Pla (Carlin Motorsport ) 25m38.913s
Tiago Monteiro (Carlin Motorsport) +0.537s
Adrian Valles (Pons Racing) +24.730s
Tristan Gommendy (Saulnier Racing) +25.015s
Sergio Hernandez (Saulnier Racing) +25.649s
Julien Vidot (Epsilon Euskadi) +26.816s
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