Victory brings Farfus into title battle

Poleman Farfus was immediately challenged by local favourite and outside front row qualifier Jordi Gene, who had crept forward before the lights and would earn a false start penalty. Despite being edged onto the grass by Farfus, Gene reached the first corner in the lead.

Further down the pack, Priaulx came together with Tarquini and was spun towards the inside of the first corner before slewing back across the track and being collected by the innocent Rob Huff. Both cars ploughed into the gravel, where Priaulx's car began to smoulder from the rear.

After two laps behind the safety car, Gene edged away in the lead until taking his penalty on lap five. That handed the advantage to Farfus, with indepedent BMW driver Luca Rangoni now his main challenger.

Rangoni had surged from 10th to fourth at the start, then passed Alain Menu for third. He closed on Farfus a little in the second half of the race, but missed out on a shock overall victory by 0.7 seconds.

As Menu fell back with an apparent lack of straightline speed, Alfa Romeo's Salvatore Tavano and Chevrolet's Nicola Larini moved into podium contention, with Larini securing third with a lap 11 pass. He then set off after the leaders, while Tavano fended off Peter Terting and Jorg Muller for fourth.

Tarquini had escaped the Priaulx incident unscathed, only to crash heavily into the pit wall after a tap from behind as a horde of factory SEATs tried to pass Tom Coronel's independent version. As he girated wildly down the pit straight, Tarquini bounced off teammate Rydell's car, causing suspension damage that would later cause Rydell to retire.

With the top three in the championship all in trouble, Farfus leapt to third in the standings, just two points behind Priaulx, and one behind Tarquini.

Having ultimately fallen to eighth behind Duncan Huisman, Menu will start from pole position for this afternoon's second race.

Results

Pos  Driver                Make                    Time
 1.  Augusto Farfus        Alfa Romeo 156     28:20.311
 2.  Luca Rangoni          BMW 320si            + 0.743
 3.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet Lacetti    + 2.268
 4.  Salvatore Tavano      Alfa Romeo 156       + 6.397
 5.  Peter Terting         SEAT Leon            + 7.698
 6.  Jorg Muller           BMW 320si            + 8.593
 7.  Duncan Huisman        BMW 320si           + 14.414
 8.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet Lacetti   + 14.738
 9.  James Thompson        SEAT Leon           + 15.138
10.  Yvan Muller           SEAT Leon           + 15.631
11.  Dirk Muller           BMW 320si           + 17.808
12.  Pierre-Yves Corthals  Honda Accord        + 19.181
13.  Gianni Morbidelli     Alfa Romeo 156      + 19.740
14.  Tom Coronel           SEAT Leon           + 20.601
15.  Alessandro Zanardi    BMW 320si           + 20.985
16.  Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon           + 21.507
17.  Maurizio Ceresoli     SEAT Leon           + 21.790
18.  Vincent Radermecker   Chevrolet Lacetti   + 23.517
19.  Oscar Nogues          SEAT Leon           + 24.892
20.  Stefano D'Aste        BMW 320i            + 25.314
21.  Maria De Villota      Chevrolet Lacetti   + 41.052
22.  Diego Romanini        BMW 320i            + 47.446
23.  Rickard Rydell        SEAT Leon           + 2 LAPS
24.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT Leon           + 4 LAPS

Not Classified

     Andy Priaulx          BMW 320si          D.N.F.
     Robert Huff           Chevrolet Lacetti  D.N.F.

Fastest Lap

     Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon          1:45.024