Vettel scores home win

While the result was the perfect gift to the home fans, the neutrals were not so well served. With the Carlin team having the measure of the field in qualifying, Vettel's anticipated duel with team-mate Mikhail Aleshin failed to materialise. The Russian was tapped into a spin at the first corner in an incident which also claimed sixth place qualifier Clivio Piccione and Monza winner Salvador Duran.

"I was nervous about the start," said Vettel. "I could see a red part of car from my team-mate coming closer towards me, but I was lucky to be gone before all of the incidents at the first turn. The amount of people who have turned up is a pleasant surprise, and it just makes the win sweeter."

Ben Hanley finished a clear second to move himself back into the limelight. Having just shaded Vettel by a tenth in qualifying, Hanley was unable to stay on terms with the BMW Formula One test driver in the race, finishing 8.5 seconds adrift.

Alvaro Parente was very coy about whether he had been the culprit in the startline incident, but a tell-tale hole in his nose cone signalled guilt. In a race which was short on overtaking on the track, good pit work by the Tech 1 crew moved Parente ahead of Alvaro Barba in the pit lane for the final place on the podium.

From the green, Vettel defended the inside line into the first turn from Aleshin. At the apex, Aleshin found himself pointing backwards and the unfortunate Piccione, in the wrong place at the wrong time, was forced into the gravel in avoidance.

Duran was the next to be caught out, as the pack splintered manically. The Mexican clouted the back of Aleshin's stationary machine, breaking his left front wheel. Aleshin managed to limp back to the pits with a punctured right rear, but was forced to retire after a few exploratory laps with a replacement wheel.

The safety car was called out with Vettel leading from Hanley, Barba third, Parente fourth and Marco Bonanomi fifth. The main benefactor from the confusion was Miguel Molina, who found a clear path through the carnage to jump from 19th to sixth.

From the restart Vettel opened a one and half second gap on Hanley in the space of two laps.

"We're getting closer," said Hanley. "Qualifying is the most important thing here and P2 was a good result. We are just losing out over a race distance to Sebastian.

"My start was not very good which was lucky as I stayed out of trouble. I had this premonition under braking that there was going to be an accident.

"People were arriving at the first turn with locked brakes at a million miles an hour. Tomorrow I'll start P9 and that is where all the accidents seem to be."

Molina dropped back behind Giedo van der Garde on lap seven, and eventually fell all the way down to tenth place. Should Parente escape penalty, Miguel will start tomorrow's reversed grid race from pole position.

Barba was under close scrutiny from Parente in third, and the pair pitted in tandem on lap nine. With two tyres being changed, Draco's effort of 7.5 seconds for Barba was bettered by the French Tech 1 mechanics. Barba exited the pits on Parnete's gearbox, and despite on occasion sliding the car around the final Coca-Cola Kurve, was unable to claw his position back. 

"I knew we'd struggle with tyres after my pit-stop," said Parente. "Before the stop I was quicker than Barba, but couldn't pass. When I put on a fairly worn set it was a case of defend and resist to the flag."

Epsilon Euskadi's Filipe Albuquerque briefly held fastest lap as he worked his way up to fifth ahead of Marco Bonanomi.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Driver                Team                        Time
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Carlin Motorsport           43:28.299
 2.  Ben Hanley            Prema Powerteam             +   8.406
 3.  Alvaro Parente        Tech 1 Racing               +  11.677
 4.  Alvaro Barba          International Draco Racing  +  12.414
 5.  Filipe Albuquerque    Epsilon Euskadi             +  13.114
 6.  Marco Bonanomi        RC Motorsport               +  21.008
 7.  Giedo van der Garde   Victory Engineering         +  34.159
 8.  Davide Valsecchi      Epsilon Euskadi             +  34.949
 9.  Guillaume Moreau      KTR                         +  39.699
10.  Miguel Molina         Pons Racing                 +  42.387
11.  Bertrand Baguette     KTR                         +  45.596
12.  Daniil Move           Interwetten.com             +  47.552
13.  Alejandro Nunez       Red Devil Team Comtec       +  48.832
14.  Yelmer Buurman        Fortec Motorsport           +  49.211
15.  Milos Pavlovic        International Draco Racing  +  49.666
16.  Charlie Kimball       Victory Engineering         +  50.717
17.  Carlos Iaconelli      Pons Racing                 +  53.428
18.  Ricardo Risatti       GD Racing                   +  55.152
19.  Julien Jousse         Tech 1 Racing               +1:00.850
20.  Pasquale di Sabatino  GD Racing                   +1:02.011
21.  Michael Herck         Red Devil Team Comtec       +1:04.025
22.  Xavier Maassen        Prema Powerteam             +1:07.516
23.  Pippa Mann            Cram Competition            +1:09.030
24.  James Walker          Fortec Motorsport           +1:09.735
25.  Celso Miguez          Eurointernational           +1:10.904

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Driver                Team                        On lap
     Alessandro Ciompi     Eurointernational             20
     Fairuz Fauzy          Cram Competition              12
     Michael Aleshin       Carlin Motorsport              5
     Clivio Piccione       RC Motorsport                  1
     Salvador Duran        Interwetten.com                1

Fastest Lap: Sebastian Vettel, 1:45.055 on lap 13