Former Superleague Formula champion Davide Rigon scored a lights to flag victory for Anderlecht at Assen in Holland on Sunday.
Rigon's closest challenger was Bordeaux's Franck Montagny, who was just a second behind him when they made their mandatory pit stops together on lap 12. After the stops, however, Montagny was forced to retire on lap 15 with a technical failure.
"I don't know what happened to Franck, because he had been quite close," said Rigon, whose victory was his fourth in the series. "I'm very happy. We had a great pit stop and I was able to save my tyres for the second race."
Montagny's retirement handed the runner-up spot to Flamengo's Franck Perera, who had run a lonely third before Montagny's exit. Max Wissel came through to third for Basel from ninth on the grid. He worked his way quickly up to sixth, including a great pass on Galatasaray's Tristan Gommendy at Turn 5.
Wissel jumped ahead of Julien Jousse (Roma) and Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan) in the pitstops to cement his podium finish. Jousse finished fourth, ahead of Buurman, who did well to bounce back after stalling during his stop.
James Walker stormed through for reigning champions Liverpool to finish sixth from 11th on the grid, passing series points leader Craig Dolby of Tottenham with 12 laps remaining.
Dolby finished seventh, a good save considering he started 14th. Another man to suffer a dismal qualifying, Sebastien Bourdais (Lyon), was forced out when he was hit by Alvaro Parente (Porto) while the trio battled with Dolby - who continues to lead the points standings.
Results - 31 laps:
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1. Davide Rigon RSC Anderlecht 45m02.776s
2. Franck Perera Flamengo + 2.643s
3. Max Wissel FC Basel + 4.602s
4. Julien Jousse AS Roma + 9.155s
5. Yelmer Buurman AC Milan + 11.074s
6. James Walker Liverpool FC + 28.849s
7. Craig Dolby Tottenham Hotspur + 34.323s
8. Tristan Gommendy Galatasaray + 34.688s
9. Robert Doornbos Corinthians + 44.095s
10. John Martin Beijing Guoan + 1m20.329s
11. Alvaro Parente FC Porto + 2 laps
12. Marcos Martinez Sevilla FC + 2 laps
Retirements:
Narain Karthikeyan PSV Eindhoven 24 laps
Franck Montagny Girondins de Bordeaux 14 laps
Chris van der Drift Olympiacos 7 laps
Maria de Villota Atletico de Madrid 5 laps
Sebastien Bourdais Olympique Lyonnais 1 lap
Borja Garcia Sporting 0 laps