Awesome - Brandon Maisano

As pre-finals go this one really was quite "awesome". From grid 12, after a heat DNF, Brandon Maisano drove his LH-Maxter as though it was turbo-charged, making up 5 places on the first lap alone, taking the lead before the end of lap 10 with 2 laps remaining. He then eased open a one and a half second gap as his pursuers, and early leaders, fell over each other in confusion.

After swapping positions throughout, Tiene finally slipped past Vigano in the dying moments of the race, with Smarrazzo all over the back of Vigano as they crossed the finishing line, with less than 0.6s between the three of them. A cracking final is now expected, due in less than two hours, where it remains to be seen how much life Maisano took out of his Dunlop tyres in his titanic drive!

For the British contingent, Chris Lock suffered and fell rearwards, but European Champion Jordan Chamberlain kept his cool, and from grid 10 made his way forwards to finish in 6th place, just over 4 seconds adrift of Maisano. He has not got the Frenchman's pace, but a podium remains a real possibility for the Williams Motorsport driver.