It was a day for breakthroughs at the World Series by Nissan races in France today. First Narain Karthikeyan broke his victory duck in the series, also arguably making history with the biggest success for an Indian driver in the history of the sport. Then, in the longer second race, glamour team Pons Racing got their first win, safely delivered by Heikki Kovalainen.

After getting pole position yesterday, Karthikeyan had no trouble dominating the race from the lights to the flag. His margin of victory was just under three seconds, but it had been even greater before he made a small mistake at the Adelaide hairpin when he locked up his brakes. Kovalainen might have briefly thought he had a sniff of a chance, but once Karthikeyan had resumed his momentum it was clear that the Finn still had no answer.

"It's a great day for the team and myself," said Karthikeyan. "It's a great thing for India too, because this is the biggest single-seater championship after F1. I am over the moon, everything is coming together so nicely."

Kovalainen was equally unchallenged in second, with Enrique Bernoldi finishing a long distance behind him. Bernoldi faded in the latter stages and was almost caught by Jean-Cristophe Ravier, who had sat unthreateningly a couple of seconds behind throughout the race.

Kovalainen streaked away from pole position in the second race, stayed out for as long as permissible until his crew executed a perfect pitstop that let him back out with his advantage intact. He was several seconds ahead of nearest rival Tristan Gommendy (who stopped on the same lap) at the flag.

"I knew if I got a start then there would be no problem," said Kovalainen, who now leads the championship. "It's taken some time for this team to come together, and I'm not always such a fast season-starter either. But I think we can definitely challenge for the title from now on."

Gommendy had got ahead of Karthikeyan into Estoril corner on the first lap, and then spent the first half of the race fending off the Indian. But Karthikeyan then got a drive-through penalty for speeding at his first stop, and so dropped out of podium contention. He still finished in fourth, behind Epsilon Euskadi driver Ander Vilarino, who made up for a disappointing first race with this podium finish.