Augusto Farfus wins first race at Pau

Brazilian driver Augusto Farfus has won the first race at Pau in dominating fashion. The BMW driver started from pole position and led the race from start to flag. The race needed a restart after a pile-up at the hairpin, but this could not effect Farfus’ strong form. After the restart the Brazilian posted laps over a second faster than the rest of the field, giving him a 17.8 second lead at the finish.

At the first start of the race, Spaniard Oscar Nogués collected the back of James Thompson’s car and the front right suspension broke as a result. The driver who won his drive because he scored the most points during the SEAT Léon Eurocup at Valencia had end his race a couple of corners later.

As the rest of field managed to get safely through the first couple of corners, things went wrong at the hairpin. Tiago Monteiro pushed Alessandro Zanardi into the back of Alain Menu. The road was completely blocked, and the race had to be red flagged. Independent driver Pierre Yves Corthals could not make it to the restart, as his car was to heavily damaged in the incident.

At the restart, the field was released from behind the safety car. Farfus drove away from the rest straight away. Yvan Muller led the rest of the pack in second, ahead of Gene, Tarquini, Huff and Rydell. Nicola Larini, Andy Priaulx, Jörg Müller and Alain Menu fought over the places 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th.

During the rest of the race not much changed in these positions. Robert Huff was the only one to gain a place, as he overtook Gabriele Tarquini on the last lap. In the back of the field, Sergio Hernández managed to overtake Franz Engstler and teammate Stefano D’Aste, to clinch second position in the Independents Trophy. Local man Laurent Cazenave took the win in the Independents Trophy on his debute in the World Touring Car Championship.