Down to 2
6th win of the season for Kederer ahead of Donald Brugman, whose 2nd place wasn't enough to keep the lead in the championship. 3rd place went to Pablo Diehl, who secured his first podium this year with a strong performance. Tim Engberink and Mane Goddard lost their chances on the title today, the former retired from the lead of the race in lap 3, Goddard struggled all weekend and retired from 8th with 8 laps to go.
The first 7 positions remained unchanged after the start, Heymans got up to 8th from 11th. Engberink and Kederer quickly started to open a gap to Utzer, until the Dutchman's gearbox failed at the end of lap 3. Brugman was fueled for a one stopper, thus didn't manage to attack Utzer ahead of him. Further down the field Black, Harvey, Sigoulakis and Keranen all were working up through the field, however both Harvey and Keranen made individual mistakes, losing a lot of time.
Brugman took the lead when Kederer and Utzer pitted, ahead of Diehl who was one stopping as well. Kederer dropped to 3rd, ahead of Martins, Sigoulakis, Laad, Goddard and Reed, who also were on one stop strategies. When the one stoppers pitted as well, the running order was Kederer ahead of Black, Hunsley, Brugman, Utzer, Lintner, Heymans and Diehl. When the second round of stops was about to begin, Hunsley retired with a blown engine. Kederer's lead was big enough to stay in first, with Brugman 5 seconds behind him. With fresher tyres than Brugman he managed to pull away rather easily. Diehl followed in 3rd with a 20 second gap, Laad another 10 seconds behind in 4th. Sigoulakis was in 5th, with Black right behind him. Martins another 10 seconds down defended 7th against Goddard. Laad began to struggle with worn tyres, dropping all the way down to 10th in the last 13 laps. Black managed to snatch 4th from Sigoulakis with 3 laps to go. Martins held on to 6th place, Utzer and Lintner behind him were closing in quickly in the last few laps. Keranen and Rinneaho were also gaining a bunch of spots in the last laps, however the Minardi driver retired with 3 laps to go, while Keranen had to pay for his mistake early in the race, ending up only 6 seconds behind the last points position.
FIA Press Conference
@Diehl: Strong result after 3 difficult races, how difficult were the last couple of laps with the worn tyres?
@Manolis Sigoulakis: 3rd consecutive points finish, something to build on for next year?
@Rui F. Martins: Once again you managed to put the Arrows into the points, looking to put yourself forward for a top seat next season?
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