Premat takes lights-to-flag win

Premat was chased all the way by title rival Neel Jani, the Swiss car finishing just two tenths of a second behind the French car, after 18 laps around the tight Fundidora Park circuit.

Jani's runner-up finish means that it is impossible for Team France to wrap up the championship in the feature race later today.

Premat took command from the rolling start, with Jani and South Africa's Stephen Simpson following close behind. Alvaro Parente made a mistake and cut the chicane. He slowed and pulled into the pits at the end of the first lap.

That opening lap finished under a safety car. Mexico's Salvador Duran and Ireland's Ralph Firman clashed on the straight heading into Turn 10. Both cars were badly damaged.

But more drama was to come. As the cars filed down the pit straight behind the safety car to complete lap two, Hayanari Shimoda rode up the back of Matt Halliday's New Zealand car.

The Japanese flipped and rolled three times despite the reduced speed, Shimoda fortunately emerging unscathed.

The race restarted on lap seven. Premat was on the power early to lead from Jani and Toccacelo, who had passed Stephen Simpson on the first lap when the South African had run wide at the hairpin.

Simpson was having a miserable day. Having lost his pole position for a technical infringement, he suddenly slowed and pitted at the end of lap seven.

Dutchman Jos Verstappen was the man on the move. He passed the USA's Bryan Herta for fourth place and quickly built a gap. He would finish fourth behind Toccacelo.

Herta lost another place three laps after Verstappen passed him, again into the left-hander leading into the Esses. Tomas Enge slipped by to claim fifth place.

Robbie Kerr, who started way down in 15th, moved up the order until he came to Christian Fittipaldi.

The Briton dived down the inside of the Brazilian into Turn 10 on lap 14, but the pair touched and both spun. Kerr recovered to finish 11th, while Fittipaldi nursed his damaged machine home in 14th.

Pos  Driver                  Team            Time
 1.  Alexandre Premat        France          29:20.743
 2.  Neel Jani               Switzerland     +   0.283
 3.  Enrico Toccacelo        Italy           +   0.874
 4.  Jos Verstappen          Netherlands     +   2.141
 5.  Tomas Enge              Czech Republic  +  13.553
 6.  Bryan Herta             USA             +  20.079
 7.  Alex Yoong              Malaysia        +  22.870
 8.  Timo Scheider           Germany         +  23.357
 9.  Patrick Carpentier      Canada          +  26.236
10.  Patrick Friesacher      Austria         +  26.911
11.  Robbie Kerr             Great Britain   +  28.701
12.  Ananda Mikola           Indonesia       +  38.460
13.  Graham Rahal            Lebanon         +  41.406
14.  Christian Fittipaldi    Brazil          +  50.749
15.  Tengyi Jiang            China           +  51.721
16.  Christian Jones         Australia       +1:12.442
17.  Stephen Simpson         South Africa    +  9 Laps
18.  Matt Halliday           New Zealand     + 14 Laps
19.  Alvaro Parente          Portugal        + 14 Laps
20.  Hayanari Shimoda        Japan           + 15 Laps
21.  Ralph Firman            Ireland         + 18 Laps
22.  Salvador Duran          Mexico          + 18 Laps