After ten laps, Montanari’s lead had been trimmed back to 2.5secs as van Lagen pulled away from Valles, who was now being closely pursued by Kubica. Gommendy continued to lap on his own in fifth place, and the gap behind him grew further when Milos Pavlovic, who had been doing a tremendous job of fighting off Enrico Toccacelo’s attacks, was forced to abandon. Promoted to sixth spot behind the Italian was Damien Pasini, who was putting in a great race performance on his home territory.
Despite van Lagen's stealth attack continuing to the halfway point of race, Montanari appeared to have things under control, the Draco driver perfectly capable of keeping a three-second lead over his Dutch pursuer. Not quite so controlled despite the absence of any real pressure, Gommendy lost a part of his front wing against the barrier and Toccacelo, who was by then lapping the quickest in the race, closed up on the Frenchman.
More important incidents also continued down the order, with Tedeschi spinning for a second time, this time with terminal consequences. Rookie Medhi Bennani, who was also lapping near the back of the field, then made a costly mistake at the Swimming Pool chicane and, due to the dangerous position in which his car was left, the safety car finally made an appearance.
The race resumed with four laps remaining and, with the drivers having been bunched up, changes in the running order were to be expected. Montanari, however, managed the situation perfectly, moving a few lengths ahead on the restart. Despite the earlier loss of his wing, Gommendy also moved forward, passing Kubica for fourth place on the last lap, but there was no such luck for late call-up Alex Lloyd, whose DAMS entry caught the barrier on the penultimate corner…
“The race went off smoothly, without any problems, but it was hard to maintain the tempo from a physical point of view," Montanari reported, "I was a little bit apprehensive when the safety car was brought out, but I was able to handle the situation.”
