Tarquini wins shortened race one

The race took three attempts at a rolling start to get going, and once underway it didn't last a lot longer. Tarquini survived early pressure from fellow front row starter Rob Huff and his job was done by the sixth racing lap when the safety car came out for the rest of the race.

Local driver Ismail Sbai crashed his Chevrolet at one of the chicanes, shortly after Andrey Romanov had done the same in his BMW. The track wasn't cleared in the remaining 10 minutes so the order remained the same to the end.

Huff made an incredible save after a punt from behind by Fredy Barth to hold onto his second place on the second lap, and looked at moments as though he had the pace to challenge Tarquini. Tiago Monteiro took advantage of Barth's loss of momentum to take third place, with Tom Coronel and Yvan Muller completing the top six.

Norbert Michelisz and Andy Priaulx will share the front row for this afternoon's second race, with Priaulx diving down the inside of Alain Menu at the final hairpin to claim eighth and the race two pole.

The only other incident of note in the reduced race was when Michel Nykjaer ran wide at Turn 2 on the opening lap, dropping down to 11th and forcing SR Sport SEAT team-mate Jordi Gene to the back.

Pos Driver                  Car                    Time/Gap
 1. Gabriele Tarquini       SEAT         13 laps/32m12.815s
 2. Rob Huff                Chevrolet                +1.117
 3. Tiago Monteiro          SEAT                     +1.792
 4. Fredy Barth             SEAT                     +2.436
 5. Tom Coronel             SEAT                     +3.513
 6. Yvan Muller             Chevrolet                +5.615
 7. Norbert Michelisz       SEAT                     +7.900
 8. Andy Priaulx            BMW                      +8.892
 9. Alain Menu              Chevrolet               +10.113
10. Augusto Farfus          BMW                     +11.959
11. Michel Nykjaer          SEAT                    +12.876
12. Franz Engstler          BMW                     +14.380
13. Jordi Gene              SEAT                    +15.160
14. Sergio Hernandez        BMW                     +16.347
15. Mehdi Bennani           BMW                     +16.835
16. Harry Vaulkhard         Chevrolet               +18.057
17. Darryl O'Young          Chevrolet               +19.737

Not classified

    Ismail Sbai             Chevrolet                8 laps
    Andrey Romanov          BMW                      6 laps
    Stefano D'Aste          BMW                      2 laps


Fastest lap, Barth 1m46.925s