Buurman wins race one for AC Milan

The start was wild, with front row starters Julien Jousse of Roma and Corinthians' Robert Doornbos getting mugged on the long drag to the first corner.

The pack ran three abreast and three deep into the hairpin, but only Galatasaray's Tristan Gommendy ran wide, despite a host of locked-up cars, with Buurman grabbing the lead on the inside from Davide Rigon (Anderlecht), who also jumped ahead of Jousse.

Doornbos slumped to sixth, behind Franck Perera (Flamengo) and Olympiacos's Chris van der Drift, and would lose a further place just before the mandatory pitstops to Liverpool's James Walker.

In the stops, Buurman waited a lap later than most to take new tyres, and a scruffy out-lap allowed Rigon right onto his tail.

"I think I hit the pit speed-limiter with my hand at Turn 1 after the pitstop as I was talking on the radio," said Buurman. "Traffic is always difficult to judge, and Maria [de Villota] got in my way a bit, but once I got past her I could pull away again."

He won by 7.7s and didn't even need to use all of his push-to-pass allocation to do it. Rigon (who admitted he had a "boring race") finished well clear of van der Drift, who enjoyed a brilliant pitstop to leap to third, ahead of Perera.

"It was a great race for me," said Buurman. "I overtook Robert on the start and got on the inside for the first corner. It was close after the pitstop, but I could pull out the gap again.

"I'll start way down at the back for the second one, but hopefully I'll work my way back to the front again."

Jousse finished fifth, heading a train of cars comprising Walker, Doornbos, Max Wissel (up from 12th for FC Basel) and Gommendy. Despite a huge amount of squabbling, no-one was able to make a pass stick.

Dolby finished 10th, scoring 18 points but losing 32 of his 60-point lead to Buurman.

Jarama winner John Martin failed to start for Beijing Guoan following a problem with one of his rear wheels on the warm-up lap.

Pos  Driver               Team                           Time/Gap
 1.  Yelmer Buurman       AC Milan                     46m36.469s
 2.  Davide Rigon         RSC Anderlecht              +    7.724s
 3.  Chris van der Drift  Olympiacos                  +   11.562s
 4.  Franck Perera        Flamengo                    +   13.958s
 5.  Julien Jousse        AS Roma                     +   33.766s
 6.  James Walker         Liverpool FC                +   34.291s
 7.  Robert Doornbos      Corinthians                 +   34.961s
 8.  Max Wissel           FC Basel                    +   35.410s
 9.  Tristan Gommendy     Galatasaray                 +   36.045s
10.  Craig Dolby          Tottenham Hotspur           +   47.015s
11   Marcos Martinez      Sevilla FC                  +   53.273s
12.  Borja Garcia         Sporting Clube de Portugal  + 1m02.313s
13   Narain Karthikeyan   PSV Eindhoven               + 1m19.568s
14   Sebastien Bourdais   Olympique Lyonnais          +     1 lap
15.  Franck Montagny      Girondins de Bordeaux       +     1 lap

Retirements:

     Maria de Villota     Atletico de Madrid              15 laps
     Alvaro Parente       FC Porto                        12 laps
     John Martin          Beijing Guoan                    0 laps