Salignon makes it a double

Hanley's accident, and the treacherous track conditions that contributed towards it, brought out the red flags and secured the win for the Frenchman.

Borja Garcia finished second for RC Motorsport, joining Salignon on the podium for the second successive race.

Third place was series returnee Pastor Maldonado, his progress from seventeenth on the grid aided by slick pit work from his Draco crew.

Unfortunately, it was pit trouble that provided the undoing of pole-sitter Davide Valsecchi.

Having converted his grid position successfully into the lead and fought off the attentions of Salignon for ten laps, the Italian was called in for a drive-through penalty for fitting an incorrectly marked up tyre.

Steven Kane took some consolation for the Epislon Eusakdi team by finishing fourth, having pitted early on lap seven.

Fifth place went to Salignon's Interwetten teammate Andy Soucek, a result that moves the Austrian outfit clear at the top of the teams' standings. Milos Pavlovic brought his Cram car home sixth.

The race started under bright sunshine, albeit with a slight drizzle in the air, not enough however to make the tyre choice anything other than slicks.

Valsecchi and Salignon initially opened a comfortable gap at the front, as behind Patrick Pilet in third was under pressure from Garcia.

The Spaniard was unable to find a way by and was himself soon jumped by James Rossiter, who then passed Pilet with a confident move at Turn one on lap five.

Rossiter's race was cut short when, after working his way up from his pitstop, he suffered an accident bringing out the safety car.

Hanley found himself in the lead, helped in no small way by the consistent speed that had seen him take the race's fastest lap.

With rain beginning to fall, conditions behind the safety car deteriorated rapidly. Alessandro Bonetti lost control at the downhill approach to the chicane, and moments later Hanley hit the wall as he warmed his tyres in preparation for the re-start.

"The conditions at the end were like driving on ice," recalled winner Salignon, "I'm just happy that the restart was called off after Hanley's accident.

"I never expected before this weekend to come away with two wins."

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time
 1.  Eric Salignon        Interwetten.com        39:08.295
 2.  Borja Garcia         RC Motorsport          +   0.965
 3.  Pastor Maldonado     Draco Multiracing USA  +   1.621
 4.  Steven Kane          Epsilon Euskadi        +   2.642
 5.  Andy Soucek          Interwetten.Com        +   3.363
 6.  Milos Pavlovic       Cram Competition       +   4.703
 7.  Alvaro Barba         Jenzer Motorsport      +   6.815
 8.  Enrico Toccacelo     Eurointernational      +   7.752
 9.  Bruce Jouanny        RC Motorsport          +   8.510
10.  Alx Danielsson       Comtec                 +   9.492
11.  Pascal Kochem        Eurointernational      +  12.066
12.  Gregory Franchi      Prema Powerteam        +  13.872
13.  Hayanari Shimoda     Victory Engineering    +  14.994
14.  Tomas Kostka         Draco Multiracing USA  +  15.937
15.  Davide Valsecchi     Epsilon Euskadi        +  16.784
16.  Christian Montanari  Prema Powerteam        +  1 Lap
17.  Ben Hanley           Cram Competition       +  2 Laps
18.  Alessandro Bonetti   Jenzer Motorsport      +  2 Laps
19.  Jerome D'ambrosio    Tech 1 Racing          +  2 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver               Team                  Laps
     James Rossiter       Pons Racing            17
     Patrick Pilet        GD Racing              14
     Celso Miguez         Pons Racing            12
     Ryo Fukuda           Tech 1 Racing           9
     Michael Aleshin      Carlin Motorsport       1
     Robbie Kerr          KTR                     0

Fastest Lap: Ben Hanley, 1:17.934 on lap 17