Liverpool wins Estoril race one

Valles moved up to third at the start, as fellow second row man Kasper Andersen struggled away in his Olympiakos car. Valles stalked second place man Robert Doornbos of AC Milan in the early stages, but neither could hold a candle to poleman Franck Perera, whose AS Roma car shot off into the lead.

Perera and Valles pitted at the first opportunity, and would encounter drastically different fortunes. Perera had a rear wheel stick, costing him his lead, while Valles had a super-quick turnaround from his Hitech-run crew and rejoined ahead of him.

Doornbos pitted from the lead a lap later, and although he did so ahead of Valles, the Spaniard managed to outbrake him into Turn 6 - the crucial move of the race.

"I had one more lap of heat in my tyres," said Valles. "I think that was crucial."

Doornbos admitted: "He had better momentum and he passed me fair and square."

Perera chased Doornbos home in third, but was never close enough to attempt a passing move of his own. Corinthians' Antonio Pizzonia was the fastest man on the track in the closing stages, and passed Davide Rigon (Beijing Guaon) for fourth at Turn 7 with a handful of laps remaining.

Rigon, whose car lost pace in the closing laps, just held fifth from Andy Soucek, who set fastest lap for Atletico Madrid as he charged up from the sixth row of the grid.

Series leader Beijing Guaon has now lost a heap of points to Liverpool, and will be hoping to stay ahead in this afternoon's reverse grid race.

Pos  Driver                 Team                    Time
 1  Adrian Valles           Liverpool               46:44.582
 2  Robert Doornbos         AC Milan                + 0.948
 3  Franck Perera           AS Roma                 + 2.067
 4  Antonio Pizzonia        Corinthians             + 3.108
 5  Davide Rigon            Beijing Guoan           + 8.918
 6  Andy Soucek             Atletico Madrid         + 9.243
 7  Alessandro Pier Guidi   Galatasaray             + 20.472
 8  Borja Garcia            Sevilla FC              + 37.745
 9  Yelmer Buurman          PSV Eindhoven           + 38.932
10  Kasper Andersen         Olympiacos              + 41.163
11  Tuka Rocha              Flamengo                + 1:14.376
12  Paul Meijer             Al Ain                  + 1:14.914
13  Ryan Dalziel            Rangers                 + 1:29.690
14  Craig Dolby             RSC Anderlecht          + 1 lap
15  Dominik Jackson         Tottenham Hotspur       + 1 lap

Not classified
     Driver                 Car                     Laps
     Tristan Gommendy       Porto                   25 laps
     Enrico Toccacelo       Borussia Dortmund        6 laps
     Max Wissel             FC Basel                 0 laps