Kiss wins Auto GP race 1 at Estoril

Tamas Pal Kiss took a well-judged victory in the first Auto GP race at Estoril. It was the Hungarian's third win of the season, and his second with the Virtuosi UK squad.

The win confirmed Kiss as the series runner-up behind Kimiya Sato, who was crowned champion at the Nurburgring in August.

The race began under some confusion as an apparently clean initial start was red flagged due to what appeared to be a procedural issue involving the medical car at the back of the grid. The cars made the second start under safety car, with Kiss leading away and soon opening up a four second gap.

Behind Kiss, ex-Formula 1 racer Antonio Pizzonia used all of his experience at the restart to sweep ahead of 2013 Auto GP champion Vittorio Ghirelli, but struggled to latch on to Kiss to mount any serious challenge.

When Pizzonia's Zele Racing team struggled to detach his right rear tyre during the mandatory pit stop, the Brazilian fell back to fourth position behind Ghirelli and Markus Pommer, who filled out the podium.

Andrea Roda had a lonely race to finish in fifth, while Shinya Michimi's race was spoiled by a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane during his pit stop.

The only retirement was Francesco Dracone, who broke his Super Nova car's right rear suspension after a tangle with Luis Sa Silva's Zele Racing Lola exiting Turn 1. Sa Silva managed to survive the contact unscathed but struggled thereafter with an ill-handling car, despite leading briefly during the pit stop period.

RESULTS - 24 LAPS: