Nurburgring: Bourdais takes third win

The Frenchman led away from pole position and was never headed. But there was plenty going on behind him.

Enrico Toccacelo rose from fifth to third at the first corner and began to challenge Tomas Enge ahead of him. At the beginning of lap two the Italian went for a tight gap at the second corner and the pair clashed. Enge pitted for a new wing, but his day was already in ruins and he knew that vital points in the championship battle had been lost.

Toccacelo recovered back in seventh, while Ricardo Sperafico picked up second place and began to chase Bourdais. He got to within half a second of Sebastien, but could never mount a serious challenge. "I just controlled the race," Bourdais said. " I was pretty confident I would not be overtaken."

Impressive rookie Rob Nguyen was now running third, with Antonio Pizzonia and Giorgio Pantano battling for fourth. Having switched places a couple of times, Pantano made a mistake at the Veedol chicane and spun down the order. He would later crash out with Zsolt Baumgartner.

Pizzonia got past Nguyen on lap seven, then spun third place away. Toccacelo now closed in on the Astromega driver, but on lap 15 his race came to an end with another overtaking move that ended in a collision. Nguyen continued, but dropped two places to fifth, which allowed Pizzonia back into third and Patrick Friesacher to fourth. Bjorn Wirdheim completed the top six for the Arden team.

Bourdais now leads Enge by 13 points in the title standings.