The outcome of the first race was decided before it even began. On the formation lap, Carlin Motorsport's Tiago Monteiro was weaving in order to warm his tyre on the start/finish straight. Unfortunately he put a wheel on the grass and spun. The car was undamaged and he resumed and took his place on the grid. However, pole sitter Bernoldi had already stopped in his slot, which would prove crucial later on…

Bernoldi made an excellent getaway and quickly established an ominous looking lead in the early laps. However, Monteiro's car was working brilliantly and he homed in on the Brazilian, eventually making a daring move for the lead. Once ahead the Portuguese rookie simply drove away from the Brazilian GD Racing star. At this point his earlier mistake came back to haunt him.

Because the grid had started to be formed, the Jarama stewards had no choice but to award Monteiro a drive-through penalty for his earlier misdemeanour. The penalty only dropped him to second, such was the advantage enjoyed by the leading pair.

Going into the final lap, KTR's Bruce Jouanny held second, but a desperate lung by fourth-placed Juan Cruz Alvarez (Gabord Reyco) spun the Frenchman down to fourth, much to his disgust. RC Motorsport's Narain Karthikeyan was happy to bring the car home fifth in such conditions, while newcomer Ryo Fukuda did a great job to claim sixth place in the first outing for the Paul Belmondo Racing outfit.

Bernoldi was delighted with his result: "I've dominated the whole weekend, so I really feel I deserve this result," he said. "I was closing on Monteiro before his penalty, so I think I could have won the race anyway."

Monteiro accepted the blame for his mistake: "It's so annoying as it was my mistake. It was ours," he said. "The car was perfect in the conditions and I love driving in the wet."

Conditions were equally tricky for the second race, but yet again Bernoldi made an exemplary start and was a massive 5.3s ahead of the chasing pack at the end of lap one. From there he was able to control the race, and while his GD Racing machine was not ultimately the fastest car, he had the track position to ensure his first ever double race win in a World Series by Nissan round.

"I couldn't have done any better this weekend," Bernoldi added. "I am very happy to have overcome the conditions with only a few small mistakes, while others were spinning out."

Pons Racing star Heikki Kovalainen made a stunning start to vault from seventh to second during the first lap and the Finn looked set for a podium position right until the end. However, the handling problems, which had affected his car all weekend, returned late on and he was passed, first by the highly impressive Juan Cruz Alvarez and then Ryo Fukuda.

Alvarez was delighted to have scored a double podium finish in his first race.

"For me it's an amazing weekend. The team worked perfectly and two podiums means I am second in the championship. I hope I can stay there for the rest of the season."

Fukuda was equally as pleased to have finished third.

"The second race was very hard and if you lose concentration you went off and lost two or three places. I had a very good race with Kovalainen, I passed him then relaxed and went off and then passed him again."

Kovalainen eventually took fourth ahead of a charging Tristan Gommendy (Saulnier Racing) and Tiago Monteiro, who was unable to impress in the same way he had in the first race due to his 12th place starting position.

The next round is in Zolder in Belgium where rain is also commonplace. Can the others stop Bernoldi racing away with the title? Only time will tell.

World Series Lights

Vergani Formula's Milos Pavlovic made the perfect start to the season in the World Series Lights by claiming dominant victories in both races at Jarama this weekend.

Pavlovic made the most of his pole position to take a lights-to-flag win in race one. Championship rookie Juan Antonio del Pino kept the Yugoslav in check in the early stages, but could not quite match the pace of the Vergani Formula driver.

Towards the end of the 17-lap race, when Pavlovic was slowed while lapping the backmarkers, del Pino (RC Motorsport) briefly closed to within five seconds of the leader. But Pavlovic responded with a stunning series of fastest laps to ensure his season started in perfect fashion.

Pavlovic said: "I wanted to win this race and I did. The car was perfect and I think we had the best combination of team and driver this weekend."

Pavlovic's Italian team-mate, Matteo Pellegrino, held a comfortable third, although a mistake midway through the race caused him to slip into the clutches of fourth-placed Mateo Cemcetti. But a he responded by lapping faster than anyone bar Pavlovic to secure a podium finish.

Cemcetti was denied fourth place on his series debut by Meycom Sport's Celso Miguez late on. Sixth place went to another new driver to the championship, Simon Abadie (Epsilon Sport).

The race one result was repeated in race two, with Pavlovic coming home just 1.2s ahead of del Pino, although this did not reflect the scale of his advantage. The race start was delayed when Christian Cano's Meycom Sport car failed on the grid.

As a result just 10 cars took the start, but when Pavlovic crossed the line four seconds up on the rest after the first lap, it was a one-car race. He continued to stretch his lead by over a second a lap until his team-mate Giovanni Tedeschi fell foul of the conditions and spun his car into the gravel.

The Safety Car was deployed while his machine was moved, which allowed the pack to close in on Pavlovic. This was great news for del Pino, who had gone off on lap two, dropping to the back of the pack. He had charged back to fourth, but was too far back to make further progress. Now, however, he could pick off Mathieu Lahaye and Celso Miquez ahead of his, but despite setting fasting lap, he could not prevent Pavlovic from celebrating his second win of the weekend.

Formula Junior

Promising young Spanish racer Marco Barba underlined his pre-season status as favourite for the Formula Junior championship by winning both races at Jarama. Race one was a stroll for the Escuela Lois Circuit driver, who led every lap of the race with team-mate Artur Llobell playing the perfect supporting role in second.

Race two was a different affair all together. Heavy overnight snow left the track treacherously slippery. Barba made a great start to lead from pole, but the man on the move was HST Racing's Javier Fernandez, who battled his way up from sixth on the grid to eventually pass Barba for the lead.

Unfortunately no sooner had he done this then his car started to develop a problem that forced back into the midfield. This left Barba to claim another with, with Llobell once again taking the runner-up slot.

New points awards15,12,10,8,6,5,4,3,2,1

WORLD SERIES BY NISSAN  - RACE 1

Enrique Bernoldi GD Racing 35.09.348Tiago Monteiro Carlin Motorsport 15.796Juan Cruz Alvarez Gabord Reyco 20.328Bruce Jouanny KTR 20.902Narain Karthikeyan RC Motorsport 33.897Rya Fukuda Paul Belmondo Racing 53.084Heikki Kovalainen Pons Racing 1’10.499Jean-Christophe Ravier Epsilon Euskadi 1’19.970Olivier Pla RC Motorsport 1’24.583 Didier Andre KTR 1’44.5529Rodrigo Sperafico Vergani Formula 1’51.494Tristan Gommendy Saulnier Racing 1’52.197Felix Porteiro Profesa Competición 1 lapRalph Firman Gabord Reyco 1 lap Adrian Valles Pons Racing 1 lapNot ClassifiedAnder Vilariño Epsiilon EuskadiPablo Donoso GD RacingRoldan Rodríguez Profesa CompeticiónNot Finished first lapBoris Derichebourg Paul Belmondo Racing Fastest Lap Enrique Bernoldi 1’52.821 a 122.8 Km/h

WORLD SERIES BY NISSAN - RACE 2

Enrique Bernoldi GD Racing 48’39.378 Juan Cruz Alvarez Gabord Reyco 3.298Rya Fukuda Paul Belmondo Racing 11.878Heikki Kovalainen Pons Racing 17.102Tristan Gommendy Saulnier Racing 17.705Tiago Monteiro Carlin Motorsport 31.678Bruce Jouanny KTR 42.025Didier Andre KTR 1’03.145 Ander Vilariño Epsiilon Euskadi 1’12.680Adrian Valles Pons Racing 1’36.410Jean-Christophe Ravier Epsilon Euskadi 1’37.157Felix Porteiro Profesa Competición 1 lapRodrigo Sperafico Vergani Formula 1 lapNot ClassifiedOlivier Pla RC Motorsport 12 lap Ralph Firman Gabord Reyco 18 lap Narain Karthikeyan RC Motorsport 21 lapPablo Donoso GD Racing 24 lapNot Finished first lapRoldan Rodriguez Porfesa Competicion Fastest Lap Bruce Jouanny KTR 1’48.600 127.6 Km/h

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

DriversBernoldi 32 Alvarez 22 Monteiro 17 Fukuda 15 Jouanny 14 Kovalainen 12 Kartikeyan 6 Gommendy 6 Andre 4 Ravier 3 Pla 2Vilariño 2Valles 1

TeamsGD Racing 32Gabord Competicion 22KTR 18Carlin Motorsport 17Paul Belmondo Racing 15Pons Racing 13RC Motorsport 8Saulnier Racing 6Epsilon Euskadi 5

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