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Salignon takes victory in race one

Eric Salignon held his nerve to win the opening round of the World Series by Renault at Zolder, despite running off the road on the last lap

The French Interwetten driver was almost caught out by a late race shower, but second man Christian Montanari was not in close enough proximity to take advantage, finishing 2.3 seconds behind at the flag.

Third place fell to RC's Borja Garcia, although the Spaniard was never in the hunt having suffered throughout with a suspected slow puncture. He gained the podium place when Alx Danielsson became another victim of the weather, sliding wide and relinquishing third with just two laps to go.

The race began chaotically when a darting Andy Soucek assaulted the poleman Montanari from behind under braking for the first corner. Soucek came out worse, spinning to a halt on the inside of the track, before being collected in a multi-car shunt.

A fast starting James Rossiter tried to take advantage of the melee and pushed Montanari onto the kerbs on the exit of the corner, but it was the cool-headed Salignon who, with greater exit speed, drove cleanly past them both.

The dramatic opening lap continued when Rossiter spun off at the chicane. The Pons driver recovered to finish fifth, but endured further controversy when involved in an incident that saw teammate Celso Miguez crash out heavily on lap four. The Spaniard walked away from the car but Rossiter's result remains provisional as the stewards investigate his driving.

In comparison, the winner's dramas were small fry.

"My car was not so good at the start, as it was the first time I had used cold tyres all weekend and I had a lot of pressure from Christian." Salignon recounted.

"At the end, though, I had another adversary in the weather. I tried to brake early at the end, but I still managed to lock the rears and go off. "

In sixth and seventh were Carlin's American Red Bull backed driver Colin Fleming and KTR's Robbie Kerr. Both were delayed in the early laps as a gaggle of cars fought spiritedly behind Haynari Shimoda, who had his Victory entry running as high as sixth.

Sean McIntosh, Kerr's team-mate, saw his race end prematurely when he was t-boned by the Japanese driver. Shimoda was the only Victory driver to start as his teammate Alvaro Parente missed the 107% cut-off after breaking down in qualifying.

Results

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time
1.   Eric Salignon        Interwetten.com        29:50.132
2.   Christian Montanari  Prema Powerteam        +   2.381
3.   Borja Garcia         RC Motorsport          +  13.335
4.   Alx Danielsson       Comtec                 +  19.504
5.   James Rossiter       Pons Racing            +  28.583
6.   Colin Fleming        Carlin Motorsport      +  29.376
7.   Robbie Kerr          KTR                    +  30.332
8.   Pastor Maldonado     Draco Multiracing USA  +  30.397
9.   Enrico Toccacelo     Eurointernational      +  31.212
10.  Ben Hanley           Cram Competition       +  32.005
11.  Ryo Fukuda           Tech 1 Racing          +  46.803
12.  Pascal Kochem        Eurointernational      +  48.830
13.  Michael Aleshin      Carlin Motorsport      +  52.107
14.  Tomas Kostka         Draco Multiracing USA  +  52.522
15.  Gregory Franchi      Prema Powerteam        +  56.072
16.  Matteo Meneghello    GD Racing              +  59.089
17.  Bruce Jouanny        RC Motorsport          +1:00.449
18.  Alessandro Bonetti   Jenzer Motorsport      +1:19.951
19.  Jerome d'Ambrosio    Tech 1 Racing          +1:27.823
20.  Milos Pavlovic       Cram Competition       +1:31.099
21.  Patrick Pilet        GD Racing              +  1 Lap
22.  Steven Kane          Epsilon Euskadi        +  1 Lap
23.  Edwin Jowsey         Comtec                 +  1 Lap
24.  Hayanari Shimoda     Victory Engineering    +  2 Laps
25.  Sean McIntosh        KTR                    +  2 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED:

     Driver               Make                   Laps

     Andy Soucek          Interwetten.com         13
     Alvaro Barba         Jenzer Motorsport        9
     Celso Miguez         Pons Racing              3

Fastest lap: Pastor Maldonado, 1:17.781 on lap 12

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