Liuzzi regains series lead

The Italian lost his series lead in the previous round at the Nurburgring, but the Arden driver reclaimed it with a superb drive to beat Tomas Enge (Ma-Con) and Patrick Friesacher (Coloni) in France. Liuzzi's nearest title rival, Enrico Toccacelo, endured a miserable weekend. After qualifying his BCN car down in eighth, he suffered a slow pitstop and a trip through the gravel on his way to 11th.

Friesacher proved Liuzzi's closest challenger, but the Austrian pitted early, which suggested his tyres were going off. Enge chased him down after the pitstops and got ahead with a neat move in the new section of track, just before the last chicane.

Yannick Schroeder, who started on the front row for Durango, finished in fourth, ahead of Robert Doornbos (Arden), Esteban Guerrieri (BCN), Tony Schmidt (Ma-Con) and category newcomer Ernesto Viso (Durango).

British F3 champion Alan van der Merwe finished ninth, but was involved in an early clash with Matthias Lauda, which caused the son of multiple world champion Niki to roll at the Adelaide hairpin. That caused a brief Safety Car period, although Lauda escaped completely unharmed. Another regular frontrunner, Jose Maria Lopez, spun off in his CMS-run machine.