Starting from pole position, Mikhail Aleshin (Carlin Motorsport) dominated the first race of the 2007 World Series. An action-packed race littered with overtaking moves and incidents saw Alvaro Parente (Tech 1 Racing) and Marco Bonanomi (RC Motorsport) join the Russian on the podium. Two drivers were penalized after qualifying for not having sufficiently slowed down when the session was under full yellow: Julien Jousse (Tech 1 Racing), who was due to start on row two, and Celso Miguez (Eurointernational) were both relegated to the back of the grid.
Giedo Van der Garde made a superb start and moved up to challenge Mikhail Aleshin going into the first chicane. These two were followed by Sebastian Vettel and Marco Bonanomi, who lost out the most at the start. The Italian moved back ahead of Vettel, who then span off the start of lap 2! Bertrand Baguette took fourth, ahead of Alvaro Parente. Aleshin lost no time in opening up a lead over Bonanomi, who had managed to find room to get around Van der Garde. The Dutch driver continued to fall back as the race progressed. Parente, Baguette, Barba and Moreau all overtook the Victory Engineering driver.
Parente continued his progress through the field to steal second spot from Bonanomi. On lap 9, Aleshin's lead was wiped out as the safety car came out onto the track after Valsecchi and Risatti both went off in unrelated incidents.
At that stage, the top 10 read: Aleshin, Parente, Bonanomi, Baguette, Barba, Moreau, Piccione, Fauzy, Van der Garde and Iaconelli. The race resumed at the start of lap 12. But at the first chicane, Clivio Piccione's car was thrown into a roll, meaning the safety car had to come back out onto the track. Fortunately, the Monaco driver was more shocked than hurt. His car was cleared from the track before another restart on lap 14. Parente tried his luck at the chicane, but he locked his wheels and the chance went begging. The Portuguese driver was then in turn put under pressure by Baguette, who had managed to get past Bonanomi!
Back in the main field, Alejandro Nuñez added his name to the list of casualties. Baguette then got past Parente, but then suffered a puncture on the next lap! Things went from bad to worse for KTR as Moreau came into the pits, his race over.
In the closing laps, the fight between Bonanomi and Fauzy for third place is intense. The Malaysian tried to go outmanoeuvre the Italian on the final lap, but Bonanomi defended his place with aplomb, and it was Fauzy that ended up going off. Behind Albuquerque, Vettel completed the top 5 after an incredible comeback. All of these incidents delighted Pippa Mann, who scored the point for 10th place and will therefore start on pole in race 2! The fastest race lap went to Julien Jousse.
Mikhail Aleshin: «Everything went well until the safety car came out for second time. I then had some problems with the brakes and Alvaro came right back at me. But I kept on pushing right to the end.»
Alvaro Parente: "I didn't get off to a good start and I fell back several places. I pushed throughout the race and managed to move right back up on Mikhail. I tried to attack but I made a mistake which left me too far back to make a move.»
Marco Bonanomi: «I am very happy to finish on the podium on home soil. The race was difficult after a poor start. I scrapped with Vettel and Parente and we lost touch with the leader. The car performed less well after the safety car came out and I had to hold off Fauzy to keep my place.»
Pos N° Drivers Team Laps Best Time
1 7 ALESHIN Michael Carlin Motorsport ==24== 1:38.889 2 32 PARENTE Alvaro Tech 1 Racing 1.393 1:38.816 3 10 BONANOMI Marco RC Motorsport 5.262 1:39.184 4 21 ALBUQUERQUE Filipe Epsilon Euskadi 9.909 1:39.284 5 8 VETTEL Sebastian Carlin Motorsport 13.174 1:39.078 6 3 PAVLOVIC Milos International DracoRacing 15.704 1:39.434 7 25 MIGUEZ Celso Eurointernational 18.793 1:39.992 8 23 MOLINA Miguel Pons Racing 20.774 1:39.685 9 1 DURAN Salvador Interwetten.com 21.135 1:39.137 10 20 MANN Pippa Cram Competition 27.454 1:39.967 11 5 VAN LAGEN Jaap Red Devil Team Comtec 29.557 1:39.845 12 19 FAUZY Fairuz Cram Competition 31.170 1:38.772 13 24 IACONELLI Carlos Pons Racing 32.360 1:39.875 14 26 CIOMPI Alessandro Eurointernational 33.895 1:39.729 15 2 MOVE Daniil Interwetten.com 41.661 1:40.354 16 31 JOUSSE Julien Tech 1 Racing 52.870 1:38.178 17 30 PHILIPPE Richard Fortec Motorsport ==23== 1:39.915 18 15 BAGUETTE Bertrand KTR 6.638 1:38.222 19 11 VAN DER GARDE Giedo Victory Engineering ==21== 1:40.150 20 29 WALKER James Fortec Motorsport ==19== 1:39.823 21 14 MOREAU Guillaume KTR ==15== 1:39.336 22 6 NUNEZ Alejandro Red Devil Team Comtec ==14== 1:40.525 23 4 BARBA Alvaro International DracoRacing 18.154 1:39.186 24 12 KIMBALL Charlie Victory Engineering ==13== 1:39.891 25 9 PICCIONE Clivio RC Motorsport ==11== 1:39.394 26 18 HANLEY Ben Prema Powerteam ==10== 1:40.109 27 27 RISATTI Ricardo GD Racing ==6== 1:39.972 28 22 VALSECCHI Davide Epsilon Euskadi 0.453 1:39.957 29 28 DI SABATINO Pasquale GD Racing ==3== 2:03.330 30 16 MAASSEN Xavier Prema Powerteam
