Ricciardo wins to tie points lead

From the outside of the front row, Aleshin held his position to finish second, albeit some 26 seconds adrift of Ricciardo. The impressive margin of victory is only mildly misrepresentative, as the Russian lost 10 seconds with a late race spin at Turn 1.

"When I saw on my pit board that I was pulling away at a second a lap I was a bit surprised," said a delighted Ricciardo. "The car felt quite good, but it has done so before this season and the others have been just as competitive. It did put a smile on my face, but I had to try and stay composed. I think both Mikhail and I have done a good job under pressure today, it's going to make things pretty interesting for tomorrow."

The drivers' title will be disputed between just these two in Sunday's decider. The third contender entering the meeting, ISR's Esteban Guerrieri, is now out of contention after struggling for grip and finishing a distant fourth.

The Argentinean was demoted from a podium position by British Formula 3 champion Jean-Eric Vergne, who executed a fine out-braking manoeuvre into the SEAT corner on lap 12.

Having missed yesterday's free practice sessions owing to clashing simulator duties for the Red Bull Formula 1 team, Vergne's drive from seventh on the grid was a rare highlight in a processional race at the front of the field. The efforts of Ricciardo and Vergne have sealed the teams' championship for Tech 1 Racing.

Epsilon Euskadi's Albert Costa had threatened to follow Vergne past Guerrieri, but the local Catalan driver was preoccupied in the closing stages defending from a feisty Nathanael Berthon.

Less than 0.3s separated the pair at the chequered flag, Berthon producing a determined drive after sustaining a four-place grid drop, from fourth to eighth, for a misdemeanour made at the previous round.

Fifth qualifier, P1 Motorsport's Jan Charouz retired after running wide at Turn 1 on the opening lap. There was confusion as the Czech rejoined the track, Junior Lotus Racing's Nelson Panciatici being delayed after running through the gravel trap on the exit of Elf.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time/Gap
 1.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1            45m45.264s
 2.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin             + 26.221s
 3.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Tech 1             + 35.257s
 4.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR                + 50.492s
 5.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  + 1m03.268s
 6.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            + 1m03.555s
 7.  Federico Leo       Pons             + 1m15.484s
 8.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              + 1m16.748s
 9.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           + 1m17.377s
10.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           + 1m23.607s
11.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  + 1m31.823s
12.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           + 1m32.274s
13.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           + 1m32.915s
14.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           + 2m03.010s
15.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               + 2m10.599s
16.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus         + 1 lap
17.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten      + 1 lap
18.  Dean Stoneman      Junior Lotus         + 1 lap
                                             + 1 lap
Retirements

     Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP                  23 laps
     Salvador Duran     FHV Interwetten      19 laps
     Daniel Zampieri    Pons                  7 laps
     Julian Leal        Draco                 4 laps
     Jan Charouz        P1                    1 lap
     Victor Garcia      KMP                   1 lap