Nurburgring – Race 1

Leader from start to finish, Fabio Carbone (Ultimate Signature) claimed his second successive win of the season at the end of an exciting race. The Brazilian finished ahead of Fairuz Fauzy (Fortec Motorsport) and Giedo Van der Garde (P1 Motorsport) who picked up a lot of points.

As always, the reverse grid system was in operation for the first race. Fairuz Fauzy started in pole position ahead of Fabio Carbone, Julien Jousee (Tech 1 Racing) and Marco Bonanomi (Red Devil Team Comtec).

Fauzy made the best start before he was taken by Carbone who out-braked him. A collision in the middle of the pack between Alvaro Barba (Prema Powerteam) and Miguel Molina (Prema Powerteam) caused confusion. The safety car came out. Alvaro Barba, Miguel Molina, Charles Pic (Tech 1 Racing), Marco Bonanomi and Pasquale DiSabatino (Red Devil Team Comtec) were all out of the race.

At the restart, Carbone kept his lead over Fauzy, under threat from Julien Jousse. Salvador Duran (Interwetten.com Racing) was fourth ahead of Esteban Guerrieri (Ultimate Signature) and Bertrand Baguette (International Draco Racing). Twentieth on the grid, the Belgian made the best of these opening laps. He caught up with Van der Garde and Mikhail Aleshin (Carlin Motorsport).

At the head of the field, Fabio Carbone strengthened his lead, taking advantage of the battle between Fauzy and Jousse.  The trio of Van der Garde, Aleshin and Baguette all caught up with the chasing pack led by Fauzy.

On the sixth lap, Julien Jousse crashed out and finished his race in the gravel trap. The race was over for the Frenchman, whose Championship hopes paid a heavy price.

Back in third, Salvador Duran was gaining on Fairuz Fauzy. In turn, Duran committed an error on the fourteenth lap which allowed Esteban Guerrieri and Giedo Van der Garde to find an opening and take third and fourth places. The Championship leader soon snatched third when Guerrieri and Duran made contact. Duran ran into the gravel trap and fell back to seventh place.

Seven laps from the end, Carbone had the race firmly in his grasp. But the Brazilian's lead disappeared rapidly as the safety car came out, after Aleix Alcaraz retired due to a due to a battery problem which led to a fire.

The race restarted for another two laps, but the positions remained as they were. Carbone was victorious for the second time this season ahead of Fauzy and Van der Garde, who again extended his lead in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series.

Fabio Carbone: «The car is perfect since Hungary. I made a mistake in the SuperPole, I could have done better. I took the lead at the first corner, then I just drove. This win will have an important effect on the rest of the season."

Fairuz Fauzy: «The car was hard work, in particular I had a lot of oversteer each time I braked. I held off Jousse. Then it was tight with Duran. By accident, I switched on the speed limiter on a tight corner! I must say, the safety car really helped as it would have been difficult to hold off Giedo.»

Giedo Van der Garde: «I was lucky at the start. Pic came up on my left, then there were cars going everywhere. I put the car in neutral and managed to avoid them. The car was running very well. Things took care of themselves, Jousse made a mistake, Duran made a mistake, Guerrieri made a mistake…»

Pos Number Driver  Team  Laps Time GapFirst KPH 

1 27 Fabio CARBONE ULTIMATE-SIGNATURE 23 46:57.536 - 172.0   2 24 Fairuz FAUZY FORTEC MOTORSPORT 23 47:00.067 +2.531 171.5   3 21 Giedo Van Der GARDE P1 MOTORSPORT 23 47:00.810 +3.274 171.5   4 28 Esteban GUERRIERI ULTIMATE-SIGNATURE 23 47:01.559 +4.023 171.1   5 5 Mikhail ALESHIN CARLIN MOTORSPORT 23 47:03.040 +5.504 170.9   6 19 Salvador DURAN INTERWETTEN.COM RACING 23 47:04.645 +7.109 171.3   7 3 Bertrand BAGUETTE INTERNATIONAL DRACO RACING 23 47:07.594 +10.058 171.2   8 20 Pablo SANCHEZ INTERWETTEN.COM RACING 23 47:08.290 +10.754 170.2   9 22 Pippa MANN P1 MOTORSPORT 23 47:08.940 +11.404 169.1   10 11 Claudio CANTELLI RC MOTORSPORT 23 47:09.277 +11.741 170.2   11 7 Mario ROMANCINI EPSILON-EUSKADI 23 47:10.096 +12.560 170.2   12 16 Siso CUNILL KTR 23 47:11.346 +13.810 169.6   13 15 Marcos MARTINEZ PONS RACING 23 47:18.427 +20.891 169.9   14 6 Robert WICKENS CARLIN MOTORSPORT 22 47:12.656 1 Lap 171.1     14 Aleix ALCARAZ PONS RACING 16 31:54.182   170.6     4 Marco BARBA INTERNATIONAL DRACO RACING 13 26:51.529   171.8     8 Alexandre MARSOIN EPSILON-EUSKADI 10 20:46.340   169.6     1 Julien JOUSSE TECH 1 RACING 6 13:15.028   171.3     12 Paolo Maria NOCERA RC MOTORSPORT 6 13:55.363   168.2     23 James WALKER FORTEC MOTORSPORT 3 7:54.985   115.4     25 Marco BONANOMI RED DEVIL TEAM COMTEC 1 2:29.493         26 Pasquale DiSABATINO RED DEVIL TEAM COMTEC 1 3:38.320         2 Charles PIC TECH 1 RACING 0           9 Miguel MOLINA PREMA POWERTEAM 0           10 Alvaro BARBA PREMA POWERTEAM 0