Leimer cruises to IFM win at Valencia

The Swiss driver survived an attack from Josef Kral at a safety car restart early in the race, before settling into a rhythm and eased away into a lead which grew to over eight seconds by the flag.

"It was really nice today, I made pole position, fastest lap and won the race," said Leimer. "Josef was a little bit close to me after the safety car but I could make my own race to the finish."

The caution period was required after Earl Bamber caused a chain reaction of incidents when he spun on the first lap. Five cars were wiped out, although Pau winner Alessandro Kouzkin later rejoined the race following repairs in the pits.

Up front, Leimer and Kral pulled out a big gap over third-placed Vladimir Araadzhiev who had a lonely race to complete the podium. Behind him, Pal Varhaug and Patrick Reiterer both demoted Kasper Anderson to earn fourth and fifth places.

Sergei Afanasiev's retirement with a mechanical problem trimmed the field to nine cars prior to Kouzkin's late return.

Pos Driver                 Team                Gap
 1. Fabio Leimer           Jenzer       40m02.900s
 2. Josef Kral             JD               +8.110
 3. Vladimir Arabadjiev    JD              +27.771
 4. Pal Varhaug            Jenzer          +34.317
 5. Patrick Reiterer       Iris            +39.315
 6. Kasper Andersen        Hitech          +44.660
 7. Alexander Rossi        Hitech        +1:08.233
 8. Nicolas Maulini        Jenzer           +1 lap
 9. Kelvin Snoeks          AR              +5 laps
10. Alessandro Kouzkin     Cram           +17 laps

Retirements

    Sergei Afanasiev       JD               6 laps
    Harald Schlegelmilch   ADM              4 laps
    Frankie Provenzano     Cram              1 lap
    Earl Bamber            ADM              0 laps
    Simon Trummer          Iris             0 laps