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Spa FR3.5: McLaren junior Magnussen beats Red Bull protege da Costa

Kevin Magnussen held off late-race pressure from Antonio Felix da Costa to take his second Formula Renault 3.5 win of the season at Spa

The McLaren junior driver had shot away into an early lead after the start, building up a gap of 2.5 seconds before Red Bull-backed da Costa started to chip away at his advantage.

Da Costa was then given a chance to reset the gap when the safety car came out after Nico Muller and Yann Cunha collided at Fagnes.

Magnussen did a good enough job of the restart to hold the position, but from then until the finish the gap was never more than 0.8s.

The closest da Costa came to making a move was at Les Combes on lap 15 of 21, when he had a look to the inside and locked a front wheel just a lap after Magnussen had also had a lock-up at the same corner.

Da Costa drifted away in the laps that followed as an inspired Nigel Melker - who had charged from 10th on the grid to third - sat on the tail of the lead battle waiting for a chance to pounce.

The Portuguese racer considered an attack into the Bus Stop chicane on the final lap but thought better of it, settling for second as DAMS driver Magnussen extended his championship lead with victory.

Behind the top three Arthur Pic took fourth, paying the price for a sluggish restart that allowed Melker to pass him for third.

Marco Sorensen came home fifth thanks to passing Nikolay Martsenko on the restart, while one of the biggest fights on track was between Jazeman Jaafar and Oliver Webb for ninth place.

In the end Jaafar - who fell from third at the start - took the place, while his Carlin team-mate Carlos Huertas pounced on Webb for the final point in the closing stages.

Results - 21 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team              Time/Gap
 1.  Kevin Magnussen         DAMS            47m33.742s
 2.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham    + 0.647s
 3.  Nigel Melker            Tech 1            + 1.282s
 4.  Arthur Pic              AV                + 4.358s
 5.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus             + 5.868s
 6.  Nikolay Martsenko       Pons              + 6.373s
 7.  Andre Negrao            Draco             + 7.555s
 8.  Daniil Move             Comtec            + 8.951s
 9.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin           + 17.604s
10.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin           + 18.019s
11.  Christopher Zanella     ISR              + 18.748s
12.  Oliver Webb             Fortec           + 19.507s
13.  Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec           + 23.044s
14.  Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1           + 25.181s
15.  Norman Nato             DAMS             + 25.799s
16.  Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham   + 26.316s
17.  Matias Laine            P1/Strakka       + 26.931s
18.  Sergey Sirotkin         ISR              + 27.957s
19.  Zoel Amberg             Pons             + 31.154s
20.  Marlon Stockinger       Lotus            + 31.722s
21.  Mihai Marinescu         Zeta             + 40.513s
22.  Lucas Foresti           Comtec             + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Will Stevens            P1/Strakka         16 laps
     Yann Cunha              AV                  6 laps
     Nico Muller             Draco               6 laps
     Carlos Sainz Jr         Zeta                 1 lap

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