Switzerland’s Neel Jani was fifth after earlier leading the race but Lapierre was too strong, just as he had been earlier in the sprint race.

Lapierre had earlier taken the shorter sprint race from Jani, with Brazil’s Nelson Piquet Jr in third.

But the feature race saw the Brazilian, who had won both races in the opening round at Brands Hatch, relegated to the back of the grid after stalling at the start.

A pit stop problem then hampered the Brazilian and dropped him back down the field.

Piquet had fought his way back through the pack but just as he was about to move into the points-scoring positions, following the deployment of the safety car, he was involved in a three-car accident which saw him spin out of the race with nine laps left.

But Brazil still hold the lead in the series with 30 points thanks to Piquet’s fastest lap of the day which earned him a bonus point on top of his haul from third in the sprint race.

Lapierre’s double race win moved France up to second in the standings, level on 29 points with New Zealand.

Switzerland lie fourth on 17 points, Australia are a point back in fifth and Britain sixth on 15.

Switzerland had led the feature race early on after the Italian entry and Piquet’s car had both suffered problems on the grid, leaving the Brazilian to fight from a starting position well down the grid.

Lapierre bided his time behind the fast-starting Swiss car before making his move for a second race win.

Piquet was handicapped further when he had to serve a stop-go penalty.

Germany also saw their chances hampered when Timo Scheider’s pit stop from third was delayed when a mechanic was unable to change a tyre because a wheel nut became stuck.

Switzerland regained the lead when France went into the pits, as Great Britain rose to third thanks to an early pit stop after starting the race at the back of the grid due to Kerr’s race one exit.

Switzerland had to hand back the lead to France when Jani came in for his pit stop.

A problem with the left rear tyre on Jani’s car during the pit stop saw Lapierre back into the lead and Britain’s Kerr up to second.

Canada and New Zealand also got through to leave Jani down in seventh.

But with India’s car stuck on the circuit after breaking down it meant the safety car was sent out with 14 laps to go and brought the whole field back together again, negating France’s advantage from its clean pit stop.

Piquet tried to cut through two cars as drivers jockeyed for position after the safety car had pulled in and was involved in a collision with the Japanese and Czech cars.

That collision sent the Brazilian, who had been 10th, spinning out of the race.

Lapierre took the race win ahead of Kerr, McIntosh, Reid and Jani who had been able to demote Ireland’s Ralph Firman from fifth position.

France took the sprint race win ahead of Switzerland and Brazil.

Despite the best efforts of Piquet late in the race he could not get close enough to Jani to take second place.

Britain’s race had ended in the first turn when Robbie Kerr’s car was involved in a collision with the USA’s Scott Speed which also took the American out of the running.