Gene takes lights-to-flag win

The SEAT Leon TDI driver held off the challenge of Chevrolet's Nicola Larini into the first corner off the rolling start, and quickly made a break at the front.

However, in the closing stages he came under severe pressure from teammate Rickard Rydell, who had leaped from fourth on the grid to second on the opening lap after Larini had a brief excursion.

"When I saw Nicola went off I thought 'now it's my turn' and I pushed to the maximum," said Gene. "I saw I could keep the gap and in the final laps I thought I would take it easy because I was worried I would get a cut tyre.

"The problem is I went to the dirty side of the track and went off! I just tried to take it to easy and got sideways!"

Despite being right on his teammate's tail for the final lap, Rydell did not make a serious challenge for the lead.

"Only if he had a similar mistake," said Rydell of the possibility of making a move. "He is my teammate so I wouldn't try anything stupid - I was quite happy to finish second as well."

Larini comfortably held off the SUNRED Engineering SEAT Leon TFSI of the inspired Tom Coronel to take his third points of the season in third. Despite his brief off on the first lap, the ex-Ferrari Formula One driver believed with the pace of the SEATS third was the best he could achieve.

"It was going well on the first lap until I went off," said Larini. "I was turning the same as normal but the car went straight. Fortunately I could avoid going into the tyres and get back onto the track.

"I think today I did the best I could achieve because to compete with SEAT at this track at this altitude is quite impossible."

Championship co-leader Gabriele Tarquini took fifth place ahead of teammates Yvan Muller and Tiago Monteiro, but it was Chevy's Alain Menu who took the all-important eighth place and pole position for race two after losing two places with a huge slide with two laps to go.

BMW endured a pointless race, with triple world champion Andy Priaulx the best of the marque's five works cars in tenth place.

The RBM driver was unable to make much progress from 12th on the grid, although had the consolation of getting ahead of Schnitzer Motorsport's Augusto Farfus late on to be best of the BMWs.

Second Schnitzer driver Jorg Muller finished 14th after a spin through the first complex on the opening lap.

Pos  Driver            Make       Time
 1.  Jordi Gene        SEAT       27:12.258
 2.  Rickard Rydell    SEAT       +   0.415
 3.  Nicola Larini     Chevrolet  +   3.285
 4.  Tom Coronel       SEAT       +   5.674
 5.  G.Tarquini        SEAT       +   8.963
 6.  Yvan Muller       SEAT       +  10.129
 7.  Tiago Monteiro    SEAT       +  10.342
 8.  Alain Menu        Chevrolet  +  13.603
 9.  Robert Huff       Chevrolet  +  13.978
10.  Andy Priaulx      BMW        +  16.158
11.  Augusto Farfus    BMW        +  17.161
12.  P-Y.Corthals      SEAT       +  22.817
13.  Stefano D'Aste    BMW        +  23.217
14.  Jorg Muller       BMW        +  23.518
15.  A.Zanardi         BMW        +  26.088
16.  Felix Porteiro    BMW        +  31.449
17.  Sergio Hernandez  BMW        +  34.364
18.  Franz Engstler    BMW        +  38.557
19.  O.Tielemans       BMW        +  49.537
20.  Andrey Romanov    BMW        +1:08.948
21.  Ibrahim Okyay     BMW        +1:46.664

Fastest lap: Monteiro, 1:41.067 on lap 6