Soucek wins race one in Turkey

The Spaniards were rarely separated by more than a second, but Soucek soaked up the pressure in composed style, leading every lap in the Interwetten.com car.

"My neck hurt a little bit after ten laps because of the fast corners, but I was driving with a margin," Soucek said after the race. "I always felt I could break later should I see Borja's front wing coming in my mirrors."

Garcia, with an eye towards the championship, resisted the temptation to fully commit to making a pass on Soucek.

Alvaro Parente made his first trip to the podium for Victory Engineering, benefiting from a coming together between front row starter Alx Danielsson and Monaco winner Pastor Maldonado.

From the off, Danielsson was forced to defend his third position from a feisty looking Maldonado. Moving repeatedly to the inside to protect his line, Danielsson's position looked increasing untenable until, on lap seven, Maldonado's frustrations came to boil.

Entering the final chicane, the Venezuelan punted the rear of the Comtec car, and keeping his foot in, pushed Danielsson around until he spun.

Danielsson rejoined in ninth, eventually recovering to sixth while Maldonado was slapped with a drive through penalty for his sins.

Draco teammate Tomas Kostka failed to make it past the first corner, involved in a shunt with Jaap van Lagen and a flying Patrick Pilet.

Further around the lap, Ben Hanley also came to grief. Sean McIntosh stayed clear of the trouble to finish a solid fourth for KTR ahead of Davide Valsecchi.

Garcia now moves to the head of the championship standings while Soucek can look forward to a test in the Toyota F1 car at Paul Ricard, his prize for winning last year's Spanish F3 championship.

Pos  Driver              Team                     Time
 1.  Andy Soucek         Interwetten         29:04.535
 2.  Borja Garcia        RC                    + 0.717
 3.  Alvaro Parente      Victory               + 6.610
 4.  Sean McIntosh       KTR                  + 10.134
 5.  Davide Valsecchi    Epsilon              + 12.081
 6.  Alx Danielsson      Comtec               + 16.962
 7.  Hayanari Shimoda    Victory              + 17.979
 8.  Colin Fleming       Carlin               + 18.327
 9.  Christian Montanari Prema                + 18.996
10.  Pastor Maldonado    Draco                + 22.061
11.  Celso Miguez        Pons                 + 30.834
12.  Ryo Fukuda          Tech 1               + 31.172
13.  Milos Pavlovic      Cram                 + 31.790
14.  Jerome D'Ambrosio   Tech 1               + 35.705
15.  Enrico Toccacelo    Eurointernational    + 36.229
16.  Alessandro Bonetti  Jenzer               + 42.518
17.  Eric Salignon       Interwetten          + 55.317
18.  Matteo Meneghello   GD                   + 56.603
19.  Bruce Jouanny       RC                   + 58.311
20.  Steven Kane         Epsilon              + 58.833
21.  Jason Tahinci       Eurointernational  + 1:08.989
22.  Alvaro Barba        Jenzer                + 1 lap
23.  Michael Aleshin     Carlin               + 2 laps

NOT CLASSIFIED:
     Driver              Team                     Laps
     James Rossiter      Pons                       11
     Robbie Kerr         KTR                         2
     Jaap van Lagen      Comtec
     Patrick Pilet       GD
     Tomas Kostka        Draco
     Gregory Franchi     Prema
     Ben Hanley          Cram

Fastest lap: Maldonado, 1:41.026, lap 16