Vettel scores a debut double

Formula Three graduate Vettel had to contend with the close attentions of Ben Hanley after making his first ever pit stop.

"I thought I had a big gap over Hanley so I could afford to make a cautious stop, but when I came out Hanley was right with me," Vettel said. "I also had to learn about the car because it was imbalanced with cold front tyres, so I was making a few mistakes."

Hanley closed to within less than a second, but was having handling problems of his own.

"I made a great start to go past two cars before the first corner, but then someone hit my right rear and the car had too much slide on the rear," Hanley explaned. "I'm really happy for the team to get second as they did a great job in the pits. Yesterday was unfortunate but we're showing in every race we're quick."

Third, on home soil, went to Davide Valsecchi. The result salvaged something for the local crowd after Christian Montanari's third place starting position went to waste after a first lap incident, which caused him to pit for several laps. Montanari eventually rejoined to set fastest lap.

Valsecchi earned his podium by overtaking Andy Soucek when he ran wide at turn three. Soucek led when Vettel made his pitstop until coming in on lap 17. The Interwetten driver suffered a slow change on the right rear and came out behind Alvaro Parente in fifth. Parente maintained the position until the flag.

Race one winner on the road, Pastor Maldonado, failed to make much progress from the back of the grid. The Venezuelan had spun on his first qualifying run, and came to grief as a result of another off-track excursion at Turn 12 on lap seven.

Results:

Pos  Driver             Team                   Time
 1.  Sebastian Vettel   Carlin            39:38.412
 2.  Ben Hanley         Cram              +   2.658
 3.  Davide Valsecchi   Epsilon Euskadi   +   9.198
 4.  Alvaro Parente     Victory           +  12.115
 5.  Andy Soucek        Interwetten       +  13.510
 6.  James Rossiter     Pons              +  16.455
 7.  Alx Danielsson     Comtec            +  20.555
 8.  Eric Salignon      Interwetten       +  31.570
 9.  Ryo Fukuda         Tech 1            +  33.548
10.  Sean McIntosh      KTR               +  34.801
11.  Celso Miguez       Pons              +  34.534
12.  Patrick Pilet      GD                +  35.965
13.  Alvaro Barba       Jenzer            +  37.557
14.  Milos Pavlovic     Cram              +  47.082
15.  Enrico Toccacelo   EuroInternational +  47.697
16.  Michael Aleshin    Carlin            +  48.071
17.  Borja Garcia       RC                +  49.763
18.  Steven Kane        Epsilon Euskadi   +  50.482
19.  Jerome D'Ambrosio  Tech 1            +  55.536
20.  Matteo Meneghello  GD                +  57.571
21.  Carlos Iaconelli   EuroInternational +   1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Alessandro Bonetti   Jenzer   25
     Christian Montanari  Prema    22
     Tomas Kostka         Draco    16
     Hayanari Shimoda     Victory  14
     Gregory Franchi      Prema    14
     Robbie Kerr          KTR       6
     Pastor Maldonado     Draco     6
     Bruce Jouanny        RC        1