Parente wins race two for Porto
Alvaro Parente scored his first Superleague Formula race of the 2010 season at the Nurburgring in Germany, taking full advantage of the reversed-grid to hold off Bordeaux's Franck Montagny
Although John Martin was on pole for Beijing Guoan, having failed to take the start in race one due to a lose wheel, it was fellow front row man Parente (who had retired with a misfire in the opener) who leapt into the lead at the start, and he pulled out a 2.7s lead over Montagny before the pitstop cycle started.
Despite a number of pitstop hiccoughs this year, including earlier today when he stalled in race one, Parente's Atech Reid squad pulled off a perfect stop. Montagny wasn't going to let him have it easy, however, and closed the gap to within half a second with four laps remaining.
But each of them had equal push-to-pass usage to the finish, so the order stayed the same and Parente won by 0.8s. He is the ninth different race winner in the series this year.
"It was a good pitstop," said Parente. "It was just up to me to maintain it. It was a good battle with Franck."
Montagny added: "I'm happy with that, I pushed and pushed, and hoped for a mistake, but he didn't do one."
Tristan Gommendy, who starred in a charge to third for Galatasary, said: "The balance of the car was pretty, and we were the fastest on the track at the end of the race there."
Behind him, Maria de Villota (Atletico Madrid) atoned for her Jarama embarrassment by holding off Max Wissel (Basel) and Craig Dolby (Tottenham) for her best-ever finish in fourth.
Race one winner Yelmer Buurman came through to finish eighth for AC Milan, two places behind title rival Dolby.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Alvaro Parente FC Porto 45m03.384s 2. Franck Montagny Girondins de Bordeaux + 0.826s 3. Tristan Gommendy Galatasaray + 5.515s 4. Maria de Villota Atletico de Madrid + 29.875s 5. Max Wissel FC Basel + 30.517s 6. Craig Dolby Tottenham Hotspur + 38.710s 7. Borja Garcia Sporting Clube de Portugal + 42.656s 8. Yelmer Buurman AC Milan + 43.195s 9. Franck Perera Flamengo + 43.887s 10. Robert Doornbos Corinthians + 44.486s 11. Chris van der Drift Olympiacos + 47.536s 12. Davide Rigon RSC Anderlecht + 51.259s 13. Marcos Martinez Sevilla FC + 1m03.426s 14. Julien Jousse AS Roma + 1 lap 15. John Martin Beijing Guoan + 3 laps 16. Narain Karthikeyan PSV Eindhoven + 3 laps Retirements: Sebastien Bourdais Olympique Lyonnais 15 laps James Walker Liverpool FC 1 laps
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