Van der Garde takes race two win

The Dutchman was chased across the line by the Ultimate-Signature pairing of Fabio Carbone and Esteban Guerrieri, who had tailed the P1 Motorsport driver from the opening lap.

Pole-sitter Guerrieri made a rare poor getaway, allowing van der Garde to overtake the Argentinean on the run-up to the Dunlop chicane.

Van der Garde's P1 Motorsport crew opted for the safety of a rapid pitstop, and changed the front tyres on lap nine, thereby making a small sacrifice in performance in order not to compromise track position.

With no imminent threat from fourth-placed Mikhail Aleshin, the Ultimate-Signature drivers could afford a lengthier stop to change the rear tyres.

Van der Garde was hounded over the middle portion of the race, before his car improved to allow a two second winning margin to be stretched out.

"Today has been really good," said van der Garde. "After the pitstop I had massive oversteer, but as soon as the front tyres went off I was flying again. This result is a reward to the team who have worked so hard during the summer break, but had little to show for it after the problems we had with the pitstop at the Nurburgring, and the clutch sensor failure yesterday."

Aleshin finished fourth, and now moves ahead of Salvador Duran into fourth place in the standings. The Russian's Carlin teammate Robert Wickens was unable to take his sixth place grid slot and was forced to start from the pitlane. The Canadian demonstrated considerable pace, setting a sequence of fastest laps, but languished in 22nd at the flag.

Miguel Molina held off reverse grid winner Charles Pic for fifth by less than a second.

Pic's Tech 1 Racing teammate Julien Jousse, who was second in the standings entering the weekend, completed a frustrating meeting in 15th place. The Frenchman paid a heavy price for crashing in qualifying, and suffered a lengthy delay bottled up behind Aleix Alcaraz.

Two meetings remain, and Van der Garde now leads the championship by 53 points, on 131. Carbone's second position moves the Brazilian up to second with 69, nine clear of Jousse.

Pos  Driver               Team                        Time
 1.  Giedo Van der Garde  P1 Motorsport               40:03.553
 2.  Fabio Carbone        Ultimate-Signature           + 2.048
 3.  Esteban Guerrieri    Ultimate-Signature           + 3.040
 4.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin Motorsport            + 11.819
 5.  Miguel Molina        Prema Powerteam              + 17.161
 6.  Charles Pic          Tech 1 Racing                + 17.826
 7.  Salvador Duran       Interwetten.Com Racing       + 18.214
 8.  Marco Barba          International Draco Racing   + 18.496
 9.  James Walker         Fortec Motorsport            + 20.600
10.  Alexandre Marsoin    Epsilon-Euskadi              + 22.628
11.  Marco Bonanomi       Red Devil Team Comtec        + 23.269
12.  Alvaro Barba         Prema Powerteam              + 26.017
13.  Aleix Alcaraz        Pons Racing                  + 28.388
14.  Pasquale Disabatino  Red Devil Team Comtec        + 32.338
15.  Julien Jousse        Tech 1 Racing                + 34.313
16.  Bertrand Baguette    International Draco Racing   + 35.659
17.  Pablo Sanchez        Interwetten.Com Racing       + 38.576
18.  Mario Romancini      Epsilon-Euskadi              + 39.999
19.  Fairuz Fauzy         Fortec Motorsport            + 40.209
20.  Claudio Cantelli     Rc Motorsport                + 44.254
21.  Paolo Maria Nocera   Rc Motorsport                + 46.905
22.  Robert Wickens       Carlin Motorsport            + 49.980
23.  Sergey Afanasiev     Ktr                          + 1:21.706
24.  Marcos Martinez      Pons Racing                  + 1 lap

Retirements:

    Driver                  Team                        Laps
    Pippa Mann              P1 Motorsport               6
    Siso Cunill             Ktr                         0