Anderlecht's Buurman wins race one

Bourdais (Sevilla) led from pole position and pulled out a three seconds advantage over Buurman over the opening laps, but this was negated when he suddenly spun at the Pegio left-hander.

"The grip from the rear tyres just disappeared," said Bourdais. "I was lucky to recover so quickly and keep the lead."

The Frenchman stayed ahead until he pitted on lap nine, but Buurman stayed out. This was not intentional, however, as his radio had gone down, so he stopped a lap later than intended.

As he rejoined, Bourdais was right alongside him going into Turn 1. It appeared the former F1 racer would retain his lead, but he clipped the pitlane speed limiter as he turned into the corner, causing the car to hesitate as he accelerated out, and Buurman was through into a lead he would never lose.

Buurman set fastest lap as he pulled away, and won the race by 14s.

"Amazing," he said. "At the beginning Seb pulled a gap, so I decided to save my tyres. Then he spun, and I almost passed him but it would've been high-risk, but got him after the pitstop anyway. I wondered why he didn't get on the power quicker and [AUTOSPORT] just told me why!"

Giorgio Pantano was a lonely third throughout for AC Milan, with only a first corner brush of wheels with Antonio Pizzonia (Corinthians) to trouble his day. Pizzonia was on course for fourth, but Roma's Julien Jousse, who had charged through from ninth, hit him twice with a couple of laps remaining.

The first impact gave Pizzonia a right-rear puncture, which caused him to slow dramatically at Portago bend, and Jousse hit him again and vaulted over the rear of his car spectacularly. When they got back to the pits, Pizzonia vented his fury by slapping Jousse's helmet - the 'team-mates' giving Alan Docking Racing's crew a lot of work before race two.

"He came from nowhere, I gave him room and he still hit me," said Pizzonia.

Jousse countered: "I was a bit optimistic the first time, but then he braked in the middle of the corner, and I went right over the top of him. It was a big shame as I'd passed a lot of cars in that race."

This allowed Tottenham's Craig Dolby to jump three places, as he also slipped ahead of FC Basel's Max Wissel during the fracas. He had battled his way through from 10th on the grid, while title rival Adrian Valles of Liverpool climbed from 14th to seventh. The result gave a 10-point swing in Tottenham's favour.

Valles leads the series by 39 points going into the final round, so Dolby needs at least third with Valles retiring early to have any chance of claiming the title.

Pos  Driver              Team                Time/Gap
 1.  Yelmer Buurman      Anderlecht          46m32.409s
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Sevilla FC          + 14.048s
 3.  Giorgio Pantano     AC Milan            + 30.729s
 4.  Craig Dolby         Tottenham Hotspur   + 35.924s
 5.  Max Wissel          FC Basel            + 39.164s
 6.  Tristan Gommendy    FC Porto            + 53.145s
 7.  Adrian Valles       Liverpool           + 53.742s
 8.  Esteban Guerrieri   Olympiacos          + 56.171s
 9.  Nelson Panciatici   Olympique Lyonnais  + 1m00.262s
10.  John Martin         Rangers             + 1m04.524s
11.  Enrique Bernoldi    Flamengo            + 1m13.243s
12.  Carlo van Dam       PSV Eindhoven       + 1m16.659s
13.  Pedro Petiz         Sporting            + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Antonio Pizzonia    Corinthians         31 laps
     Julien Jousse       AS Roma             31 laps
     Ho-Pin Tung         Galatasaray         7 laps
     Maria de Villota    Atletico Madrid     1 lap
     Kasper Andersen     FC Midtylland       0 laps