John Martin scored a lights-to-flag win for Beijing Guoan at Jarama, but only after withstanding race-long pressure from Yelmer Buurman's AC Milan car.
Martin pulled out a comfortable lead in the early stages, and gained further time when Buurman was delayed by the late-stopping PSV car of Narain Karthikeyan during the pitstop phase. A series of fast laps, including the fastest lap of the race, drew Buurman onto the leader's gearbox, but despite piling the pressure on, Martin held firm.
The lead pair were over 10 seconds ahead of Chris van der Drift, who brought the Olympiacos car home in a lonely third. Max Wissel was passed early on by the charging Craig Dolby, but the Basel man regained the place in the pits. Tottenham's Dolby spent the final stages of the race fending off Franck Perera in the Flamengo car, but held on for fifth.
Borja Garcia will start from pole in the reversed-grid second race after his Sporting Lisbon car ended the race in the gravel. He will be joined on the front row by Peugeot Le Mans star Franck Montagny, who was forced to retire the Bordeaux car with a mechanical problem.