Tamas Pal Kiss took his third victory of the Auto GP World Series season in the opening race of the Estoril weekend to secure the runners-up spot in the championship.
The Hungarian led from start to finish in Portugal to give Virtuosi UK their third win of the season, and it meant that Pal Kiss moved twenty-five points clear of Markus Pommer in the championship with only twenty points available from the final race of the season later this afternoon.
Pommer finished the opening race at Estoril in third position behind his Super Nova International team-mate Vittorio Ghirelli, who is standing in for the injured Michela Cerruti this weekend as the Italian requires surgery on a back injury.
Antonio Pizzonia marked his return to single seater racing with fourth place for Zele Racing, but was on course for second place behind Pal Kiss but for a bad pit stop that cost him two places.
Andrea Roda had a quiet race to fifth in the second of the Virtuosi UK entries, while Shinya Michimi was sixth for Euronova Racing despite a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane during his mandatory pit stop.
Series debutant Luis Sa Silva survived a clash with Francesco Dracone on lap four to finish seventh for Zele Racing, with the incident between the two seeing the Super Nova International driver retire with a broken suspension.
Michele La Rosa of MLR71 by Euronova and Salvatore de Plano of FMS Racing finished a lap down in eighth and ninth.
The race start was delayed after a red flag was shown despite an apparent clean start due to a procedural issue regarding the medical car that saw the race resume a few minutes later behind the safety car.
Estoril Race 1 Result
| POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/Laps |
| 1 | Tamas Pal Kiss | HUN | Virtuosi UK | 51m00.058s |
| 2 | Vittorio Ghirelli | ITA | Super Nova International | +4.094s |
| 3 | Markus Pommer | GER | Super Nova International | +6.446s |
| 4 | Antonio Pizzonia | BRZ | Zele Racing | +10.262s |
| 5 | Andrea Roda | ITA | Virtuosi UK | +24.546s |
| 6 | Shinya Michimi | JAP | Euronova Racing | +43.945s |
| 7 | Luis Sa Silva | MAC | Zele Racing | +46.354s |
| 8 | Michele La Rosa | ITA | MLR71 by Euronova | +1 Lap |
| 9 | Salvatore de Plano | ITA | FMS Racing | +1 Lap |
| RET | Francesco Dracone | ITA | Super Nova International | 4 Laps |
