Dutchman Yelmer Buurman in the Anderlecht car, despite being involved in an opening lap multiple car accident, came home second after successfully defending from the Tottenham Hotspur car of Britain Craig Dolby – the pair separated by less than a second at the checkered flag.

The pole-starting SC Corinthians car of Antonio Pizzonia (BRA) ultimately finished fourth after reigning GP2 champion Giorgio Pantano dropped from fourth to 12th place after spinning his AC Milan car at high speed with less than five minutes remaining.

A second 45-minute race, with the 18-cars lining up in the reverse of the opening race finishing order, plus a new three-lap non-points scoring “shoot out” for the top-three in races one and two, are staged later today.

Liverpool FC: Adrian Vallés (SP)
It was a good race – pretty comfortable. My only problem was that at the start I had to switch the gearbox to manual mode at the start so for the opening two laps I was getting used to that. But I got in to a rhythm, caught up the Corinthians car again and overtook him. It was a good race and a great way to start the SLF season.”

Anderlecht: Yelmer Buurman (NED)
“The start was difficult as the pole-starting Corinthians car seemed to back off just before the green light at the start line and the Tottenham car overtook me at the first corner. But then I was hit further around the opening lap, causing me to spin and damaging the bodywork. Despite being unsure about the level of damage, I continued. It was a good fight with the Tottenham car in the closing stages and I’m very happy with second place.” 

Tottenham Hotspur: Craig Dolby (GB)
“We started on ‘old’ tires but I got around the outside of the Liverpool and Anderlecht cars at the start before Liverpool got me back going into turn 2. I didn’t stop exactly right in my pit box for the tire change which delayed us. But on new tires I was able to push hard and recover the places I’d lost due to the stop. I pressed the Anderlecht car hard for second place but came up a little short. Nevertheless I’m very proud to give Spurs a rostrum finish on my debut for the London club.”

Race 1 - SF Round 1 France - Classification