Super Nova International - Jose Maria Lopez 3rd Fairuz Fauzy DNF

In blistering 38 degrees Jose Maria Lopez made a great start from his pole position, proving his talent, recording some very quick sector times. Unfortunately a wheel nut was cross-threaded during his pit stop, which caused him to lose valuable time and places. Back out in 6th Jose battled hard to regain places, which he successfully did passing both Giorgio Pantano (Petrol Ofisi FMS) & Nelson Piquet Jnr. (Piquet Sports) to take a well deserved 3rd place. Meanwhile team mate Fairuz Fauzy gained several places before he took out Trident driver Andreas Zuber while going into one of the circuits sharp hairpin corners. Although Fairuz was then able continue, his race would end short when he took corner 6 took quickly, hit Bruni and then experienced hydraulic problems.

Timo Glock took 1st place for iSport International today ahead of ART driver Alexandre Premat and Super Nova's Jose Maria Lopez who has scored 6 points this weekend so far, putting him joint 7th in the driver championship (21points)

Team Principal - David Sears: "Jose Maria Lopez looked set to win the race today, after a making an excellent start and leading comfortably until his pit stop. Unfortunately a rear wheel nut got crossed threaded and Jose lost an enormous amount of time in the pits. He then drove a fantastic race fighting first with Giorgio Pantano and passing him for 4th place, and then catching Piquet Jnr. and passing him to finish strong 3rd. In the second half of the race Jose was between 0.5 and 1 second quicker than any other car on the track, so the team feel the speed is there to try and win the second race tomorrow morning from the third row of the grid.

Fairuz Fauzy was really strong in the opening laps moving up from 23rd to 15th place, but then an over optimistic overtaking move, spun his car & Zuber. After this incident hydraulic gear change started playing up & Fairuz had to retire. He have to start at the back again for the second race tomorrow."

Jose Maria Lopez: "It was a very good race! It would be great to keep this up, tomorrow and for the rest of the season. I'm pleased to have scored some points, and just a little frustrated as we could have won today, but the car felt good!"

Fairuz Fauzy: "I had a very good start gaining many places in the first few laps, and suddenly I lost my brakes again like yesterday in qualifying. It was unfortunate that I hit one of my colleagues but there was nothing I could about it. I'm disappointed for the team who have done a great job. And I will be starting at the back of the grid."

Piquet Sports - Nelson Piquet Jr 4th

Nelson Piquet Jr ensured the championship battle is right back on by closing the gap from himself to Lewis Hamilton after finishing today's 41-lap Magny Cours GP2 feature race in fourth position, while Hamilton could only finish 19th.

Starting from fifth on the grid, Nelson had a difficult race after he was forced to lose positions while avoiding an incident on the first lap when Hamilton crashed into fellow Brit Adam Carroll. His Piquet Sports team chose an excellent strategy for position by bringing Nelson in for his compulsory pitstop very early, with Nelson able to come out in effectively second position.

However, he was forced into third when Alexandre Premat shunted into the side of him, forcing him onto the grass. He struggled with the car set-up for the race, and with bad tyre wear in the last quarter of the race, Nelson fell down to fourth after Jose Maria Lopez passed him with four laps to go.

Nevertheless, Nelson was happy to nurse his car home to fourth, scoring five valuable championship points, closing the championship gap to just 17 points. Tomorrow's 28-lap sprint race will begin at 10am local time, with today's top eight reversed to form the grid. Nelson will begin in fifth position behind pole-sitter Fernando Monfardini, Lucas Di Grassi, Giorgio Pantano and his Piquet Sports team-mate Xandi Negrao.

Nelson Piquet Jr: "I didn't do the best start, but I got away okay. But when I got to the first corner, Hamilton went into Carroll right in front of me and I had to go wide to make sure I didn't get hit by anyone, so I lost out there. The car was not great, it was a bit of a battle to drive and then we stopped early. It was a fantastic pitstop by the team, and it was good for strategy because we came out in second, but it meant that the car was totally undriveable for the last ten laps. I knew Lewis was far back so it was really important for me to finish strongly, so although I am unhappy with only getting fourth, it's great for the championship because it's closed the gap from me to Hamilton. I start in a good place tomorrow, and the plan is to score some good points and get even closer to Hamilton."

DAMS - Ferdinando Monfardini 8th Franck Perera DNF

Ferdinando Monfardini will start from the 1st position on tomorrow's race after taking 8th place in today's long race in Magny-Cours. Ferdinando has made an impressive performance today, he managed to push enough in the crucial moments in order to gain the point of 8th place on the track, he passed 2 cars on the start and 3 more during the race. From 14th place on the grid, he has made another demonstration of his level of performance in racing with an impressive progression in the classification.