Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Moscow FR3.5: Stoffel Vandoorne dominates and closes points gap

Stoffel Vandoorne closed the points deficit to Formula Renault 3.5 championship leader Kevin Magnussen to just four with a dominant victory in race one at Moscow Raceway

Polesitter Vandoorne executed a perfect race. After a faultless getaway, the McLaren junior racer opened a 1.4-second lead at the completion of the first lap.

A broken exhaust prevented second-place finisher Antonio Felix da Costa of Arden Caterham from mounting a threat, as a series of fastest laps by Vandoorne extended his Fortec car's advantage to a comfortable 6.7s at the chequered flag.

"This track is really hard to overtake on," said Vandoorne, "so pole was crucial. At the start I was able to create a bit of a gap, and then I could gradually drive away.

"We went a little bit in the wrong direction in the second collective test, I have to say well done to the team for making improvements overnight and getting on top of everything."

Tech 1 racer Nigel Melker survived a charging performance from Will Stevens to take the final place on the podium. In a race of few overtaking manoeuvres, Stevens made admirable progress from seventh on the grid.

The Briton risked a bold move pass debutant Will Buller for fourth place at the conclusion of lap seven.

But Buller provided Stevens with plenty of margin once Stevens' commitment to late-braking was clear, and the Zeta Corse racer took to the last corner's asphalt run-off area to be certain to avoid a collision.

Buller was unable to match the pace of the leaders, but produced an impressive debut performance to hold a four-car queue led by Andre Negrao at bay for the duration of the race.

Magnussen finished one place outside of the points in 11th. The Dane had been relegated from third to 17th on the grid after losing his two fastest laps for blocking in qualifying.

The DAMS driver made up most of his ground away on the opening lap, before passing team-mate Norman Nato for 12th on lap two. Magnussen would spend the remainder of the race tucked up on Marco Sorensen's gearbox.

The race was marred by a heavy shunt for SMP by Comtec racer Lucas Foresti, who fortunately escaped from his car unaided after being pitched onto his rollbar at high-speed.

The Brazilian had entered Turn 9 from the outside Michelin-to-Michelin with Nikolay Martksenko. A touch of wheels sent both drivers into retirement, although there was little dispute that Foresti suffered the more spectacular exit.

Results - 33 laps:

Pos  Driver                  Team               Time/Gap
 1.  Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec           45m30.868s
 2.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham     + 6.734s
 3.  Nigel Melker            Tech 1            + 10.050s
 4.  Will Stevens            P1/Strakka        + 10.867s
 5.  Will Buller             Zeta              + 34.929s
 6.  Andre Negrao            Draco             + 35.180s
 7.  Nico Muller             Draco             + 35.934s
 8.  Marlon Stockinger       Lotus             + 36.731s
 9.  Oliver Webb             Fortec            + 38.450s
10.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus             + 39.353s
11.  Kevin Magnussen         DAMS              + 40.809s
12.  Arthur Pic              AV                + 41.367s
13.  Norman Nato             DAMS              + 43.501s
14.  Matias Laine            P1/Strakka        + 43.917s
15.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin            + 57.942s
16.  Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1          + 1m15.374s
17.  Daniil Move             SMP/Comtec      + 1m15.581s
18.  Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham  + 1m16.535s
19.  Yann Cunha              AV              + 1m17.163s
20.  Mihai Marinescu         Zeta            + 1m18.529s
21.  Zoel Amberg             Pons                + 1 lap
22.  Christopher Zanella     ISR                 + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin              27 laps
     Lucas Foresti           SMP/Comtec          21 laps
     Nikolay Martsenko       Pons                21 laps
     Sergey Sirotkin         ISR                  0 laps

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Moscow FR3.5: McLaren junior Vandoorne takes pole in Russia
Next article Moscow FR3.5: Crash rules Lucas Foresti out of race two

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe