Monza FR3.5: Vandoorne takes dominant debut win
Stoffel Vandoorne nursed a badly flat-spotted tyre home to take a dominant victory on his Formula Renault 3.5 debut at Monza on Saturday
The McLaren junior driver suffered a huge lock-up into Turn 1 on lap 12 when he had already broken clear of the chasing pack after a messy start.
But the resulting flat spot from that lock-up gave him a huge vibration. By the end of the race the tyre was close to falling apart.
Vandoorne's woes appeared to give Antonio Felix da Costa a chance of victory once the Red Bull junior had picked his way though the chasing pack.
Vandoorne: future McLaren F1 star?
The pre-season title favourite was reeling the rookie in, but then retired in spectacular fashion at the first corner with a puncture.
That left Kevin Magnussen in second, but the Dane could do nothing about Vandoorne's big lead as he suffered a flat spot of his own.
Vandoorne had opened out a lead in the early laps as he broke clear of the chaos behind him, where several cars cut the chicane on lap one and fifth place starter Daniil Move was spun out.
There was more action to follow as Nikolay Martsenko tried to hold onto a surprise second place.
The Russian was fending off Will Stevens, who eventually tried to pass him on the outside into Turn 1, but bounced over the Turn 2 kerb and spun Martsenko out.
Their clash promoted da Costa to second, and in the seven laps that followed he reduced the gap to Vandoorne from nearly 10 seconds to just 5.6 before his retirement.
Magnussen was the next to inherit second place, having passed Christopher Zanella shortly before that. But the Swiss driver and Oliver Webb gave Magnussen a hard time all the way to the chequered flag.
Behind them, Nigel Melker held off a charging Arthur Pic - who started 22nd - to complete the top five.
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap 1. Stoffel Vandoorne Fortec 46m48.474s 2. Kevin Magnussen DAMS + 7.053s 3. Christopher Zanella ISR + 8.596s 4. Oliver Webb Fortec + 8.991s 5. Nigel Melker Tech 1 + 16.461s 6. Arthur Pic AV Formula + 17.087s 7. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin + 17.838s 8. Mihai Marinescu Zeta Corse + 18.474s 9. Matias Laine P1 + 19.932s 10. Norman Nato DAMS + 25.456s 11. Andre Negrao Draco + 29.408s 12. Zoel Amberg Pons + 38.137s 13. Nico Muller Draco + 38.144s 14. Marlon Stockinger Lotus + 38.988s 15. Mikhail Aleshin Tech 1 + 45.247s 16. Carlos Huertas Carlin + 45.650s 17. Emmanuel Piget Zeta Corse + 49.859s 18. Will Stevens P1 + 56.310s 19. Marco Sorensen Lotus + 1 lap Retirements:
Driver Team Laps Pietro Fantin Arden Caterham 23 A.F.da Costa Arden Caterham 13 N.Martsenko Pons 6 Lucas Foresti Comtec 1 Sergey Sirotkin ISR 1 Yann Cunha AV Formula 0 Daniil Move Comtec 0
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