Victory for Victory's Parente.

His team's name may be somewhat confident but Alvaro Parente more than lived up to Victory Engineering's billing after taking a stunning win in the second World Series by Renault race at Istanbul, Turkey.

It has been a season of progress for the reigning British Formula Three Champion, having failed to start both races in Belgium and then scoring his first points in Monaco. He then went on to take a maiden podium finish in the first race of the weekend and duly followed it up with a victory in the second race.

It was a race of firsts all round with Mikhail Aleshin and Davide Valsecchi enjoying their first podium champagne of the year, while four of the top ten recorded their first points of the season too and two new teams are also onto the board now.

However, while Parente proved the dominant force over the finish line, the Portuguese driver having passed the chequered flag with a 14 second advantage over Aleshin, it was by no means a race devoid of action, particularly at the start.

Lining up on the front of the grid and with two points separating them in the championship standings, the dispute between Borja Garcia and Pastor Maldonado promised to provide the entertainment for the crowd.

However, their show did not last any further than the run down to the first corner as pole sitter Maldonado squeezed Garcia against the pit wall and the Spaniard responded by banging wheels with the Draco Multiracing driver and sending him into the barriers and out of the race.

Garcia therefore resumed the lead of the race but went no further than lap five when stewards decided he move was robust enough to merit a black flag and duly disqualified him from the race.

With the leading duo out in controversial circumstances, Alx Danielsson inherited the lead, ahead of Mikhail Aleshin, the Russian having by far his most competitive race to date, Parente, Ben Hanley and Davide Valsecchi, the Spaniard making a great start having had to start from row eight and not row three when he was penalised for taking an unorthodox line into the pit lane.

With the pit stop window now open, several of the mid-field drivers dived into the pit lane but further back, Alvaro Barba and Celso Miguez, retired in spectacular style when they collided heavily.

With Danielsson having pitted, the Swede was left trying to keep the gap down to Aleshin, who had yet to pit. However, just as the Russian emerged from the pit lane, he came together with Danielsson.

It was the second time in two races that Danielsson saw the chance of a strong result end in a spin but unlike his recovery in the first race, the Comtec driver was out on the spot. Aleshin meanwhile managed to carry, albeit with a damaged nosepiece.

The incident allowed Parente to slip through, having risen gradually through the field and from here on in he galloped away into the lead as Aleshin struggled with his rearranged front end.

There was more drama to follow as early stoppers Christian Montanari and Robbie Kerr had managed to move into a position to fight for a podium. However, when the San Marino driver pitched himself into a spin, Kerr was unable to avoid him, ending a disappointing weekend for both drivers.

Parente though was clear in front when he reached the chequered flag and although he admitted that he didn't think he had the strongest car, he was delighted with the 25 points he had earned from the weekend.

"This completes a fantastic weekend for me," he said. "I'm not sure that we had the best strategy. But I just went on the attack after the safety car peeled off to put myself clear."

Aleshin held onto second place for both his first podium and points of the year, with Valsecchi battling to third place when he overtook fourth place Ben Hanley on the penultimate lap.

Fellow Brit James Rossiter crossed the line in fifth place, with Sean McIntosh backing up his fourth place from the first race with sixth.

Patrick Pilet secured both his and GD Racing's first points of the year in seventh, ahead of Colin Fleming, while Jaap Van Lagen and Ryo Fukuda rounded out the top ten.

Despite his rather inauspicious exit from the race, Garcia remains top of the championship standings, two points ahead of Maldonado, while another pointless weekend for Eric Salignon means his double win in Belgium seems like a distance memory.

He remains in third place, but now shares his position with a revitalised Parente, who by contrast could not forget Belgium quick enough after problems prevented him from even competing. James Rossiter leads British contingent in fifth place, ten points off the leader.