Barde extends Ferrari lead

Italian newcomer Andrea Lepore made a rapid start from second on the grid and passed polesitter Barde at the Melbourne hairpin on the opening lap. Barde's race then rapidly deteriorated - Belgian Louis Machiels passed him at the same corner a lap later and Shovlin quickly stripped the Frenchman of his third place. Unlucky for him, a crash on lap 13 ended Barde's afternoon.

With a four-way battle raging behind, Lepore streaked into the distance and had opened out a 13-second lead by the end of lap nine. Once clear of the scrap which had allowed Lepore to pull away, second-placed Michael Cullen began to reel in the leader at the rate of over a second a lap and was soon within striking distance. But the luck of the Irish deserted Cullen when he spun on the last lap, gifting Shovlin second place and elevating Robert Pergl to third.

Lepore retired on the opening lap of Sunday's feature race, handing the early lead to Shovlin. A four-car scrap between the Ferrari 360s of Shovlin, Pergl, Cullen and Machiels dominated the opening laps until Barde caught them from the back of the grid. He scythed through to second and eventually overcame a determined Shovlin, whose brilliant defence of his lead was surpassed only by Barde's sheer determination.

Shovlin and Cullen both experienced late-race misfortune, leaving the final steps of the podium to Louis Machiels and Raffaele De Simone.

In class two, Englishman Oliver Morley had a dream weekend on home soil, sealing a flawless double victory and two fastest laps. Norbert Walchhofer and Freddy Kremer followed him home in race one, with Kremer and Rolf Galiker tasting the champagne on Sunday.

Andrea Lepore 30m23.991s
Paddy Shovlin 30m37.321s
Robert Pergl 30m50.581s
Louis Machiels 30m50.987s
Michael Cullen 30m57.200s
Roberto Ragazzi 31m30.565s

Ange Barde 42:25.882s
Louis Machiels 42:27.022s
Raffaele De Simone 42:33.274s
Roberto Ragazzi 43:05.998s
Emilio Giusti 43:13.585s
Paddy Shovlin 43:16.651s