Luciano Bacheta charges to Formula 2 race one win at Silverstone

Bacheta, who qualified second, dropped to fourth at the start as third-placed qualifier Zanella leapt into the lead, ahead of surprise poleman Matheo Tuscher. Tuscher's opening lap went from bad to worse as he ran wide at Becketts, allowing Mihai Marinescu into second, and Bacheta up to third, as Tuscher rejoined behind Alex Fontana in fifth.

Zanella pulled out an impressive 2.3-second lead by the conclusion of the first lap, and he hammered in some impressive times early on, but Marinescu soon began to reel him in and was within half a second of the leader by lap eight.

Marinescu was using his overboost at this point as he closed the gap, the system being altered for 2012 to mimic the Formula 1-style DRS system in that it can only be used when the car behind is within 1s of the one in front at two strategically-placed detection zones.

Zanella held firm up front, however, and it was Marinescu who started to lose pace in the second half of the race, with Bacheta taking advantage as they lapped Samuele Buttarelli's ailing car to get a run on Marinescu on the Wellington Straight. Although Marinescu defended sternly, Bacheta took second place at Brooklands, and set off in chase of Zanella with six laps remaining.

Bacheta cruised up to the tail of Marinescu, and pounced into Brooklands on the penultimate lap: "It was my final boost," admitted Bacheta, who went on to win by just under a second. Zanella's attempts to respond on the final tour - as race-long leader he had boosts to spare - were thwarted as he claimed the boost system failed to operate.

Fontana finished third, as Marinescu slid onto the marbles at Brooklands and surrendered the final podium position on the last lap. Daniel McKenzie took fifth, but only after long-time nemesis Dino Zamparelli suffered gearbox problems in the final laps. He eventually became stuck in sixth gear, and trailed home ninth.

Poleman Tuscher slipped back to sixth after a spin at Brooklands while lunging over-ambitiously past Fontana. Hector Hurst was seventh, ahead of Markus Pommer, who surged through from last on the grid after his qualifying shunt.

Pos  Driver                  Time/Gap
 1.  Luciano Bacheta       38m35.237s
 2.  Christopher Zanella     + 0.912s
 3.  Alex Fontana            + 5.267s
 4.  Mihai Marinescu         + 6.154s
 5.  Daniel McKenzie         + 6.240s
 6.  Matheo Tuscher         + 13.249s
 7.  Hector Hurst           + 15.089s
 8.  Markus Pommer          + 15.433s
 9.  Dino Zamparelli        + 16.215s
10.  Kourosh Khani          + 19.231s
11.  David Zhu              + 23.958s
12.  Kevin Mirocha          + 29.686s
13.  Jose Luis Abadin       + 30.807s
14.  Mauro Calamia          + 31.166s
15.  Plamen Kralev          + 40.140s
16.  Parthiva Sureshwaren   + 45.832s

Retirements:

     Samuele Buttarelli       13 laps