V8Star: Cecotto extends title lead

Mutsch started from pole; Cecotto from 10th - nevertheless, the race turned into an exciting duel between the two title candidates in bright sunshine. While Mutsch converted his pole into the early lead, which he defended from Pedro Lamy through the pit stop phase, Cecotto made up one position after another during the first part of the race.

The reigning champion excited the 11,000 spectators with a charging, but clever overtaking race and closed up to his young adversary. Then, he put the latter under severe pressure, until Mutsch, who had to overcome brake problems, made a slight mistake and had to let Cecotto past. Thus, the road to season victory number three was clear.

"Of course, I had been waiting for such an opportunity," the delighted Venezuelan said. "Today, my car ran faultlessly and the race was ideal for me. Really perfect."

Behind Mutsch, Kris Nissen came home in third place after a spirited drive during the hot battle. The Dane repeated his result from the first race of the V8STAR at the EuroSpeedway in June, taking over third place in the championship standings in the process. Steffen Widmann only just managed to finish in fourth place from charging the Robert Lechner. At the start of the race, Lechner had got a stop-and-go-penalty and showed a strong recovery after that. Lechner's team-mate, former F1 driver Lamy, was taken out of the race with a black flag and then excluded. The Portuguese had pushed Roland Asch, who was sixth at the time, off the track in a hard manner.

The two novices, Franz Engstler and Toby Scheckter, celebrated a successful debut: Engstler was seventh behind Dane Kurt Thiim, Scheckter came ninth.

Johnny Cecotto 236
Thomas Mutsch 227
Kris Nissen 203
Steffen Widman 198
Robert Lechner 195
Roland Asch 189