Indeed, as the dust cleared when the safety car was deployed to remove Rydell's stricken car, Priaulx was still leading Morbidelli and Thompson, but Alex Zanardi was on a charge up to fourth place, ahead of Gabriele Tarquini, Peter Terting, Jorg Muller and Rob Huff rounding out the points. Indeed, Huff had been the big winner of the melee, jumping from 16th to eighth in a single lap.
Huff was proving racy at the restart too and although Yvan Muller got past in the drag down to the first corner, the Chevrolet driver was able to slip back past to retake the place.
Up at the front, Zanardi was pressuring Thompson and such was his pace down the home straight, he was able to slip past the SEAT in the drag down to the first corner.
It was not long though before the race was back behind the safety car though thanks to a massive crash for Emmet O'Brien in his Weichers-Sport
BMW. The Irishman had been running strongly in the independents category but went wide out of the long final corner and hit the barriers heavily, destroying his car and spraying the circuit with debris.
Although visibly winded, O'Brien walked away from the incident, in the process surveying a car that was now missing a rear wheel and much of its bodywork.
With the tyre wall rebuilt, the race continued with a two lap sprint to the chequered flag, with Jorg Muller immediately losing his seventh place when he went wide and dropped to ninth.
However, the race would continue for just one more lap when Alain Menu crashed in exactly the same point as O'Brien had. Once again running wide, slipping on the grass and slamming hard into the tyre wall, the Swiss driver did no less damage to his Chevrolet than O'Brien had done to his BMW. It is the second race in succession that
Brands Hatch winner Menu has heavily damaged his Lacetti.
