Aragon FR3.5: Oliver Rowland takes dominant maiden win in race two

The Briton controlled the race from the start, charging into a comfortable lead from pole position as front row starter Pietro Fantin struggled to keep up.

Fantin would eventually slide down the order, leaving Will Stevens, championship leader Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly to spend the second half of the race disputing the remaining two spots on the podium.

Stevens led the way in that fight until the final lap, with both Gasly and Sainz making errors while attacking him earlier on.

Gasly's first challenge at Turn 1 resulted in him running wide and handing third to Sainz on lap 10, but the Spaniard was unable to get close enough to Stevens to make a move of his own as he was running less downforce than those around him.

Eventually, Sainz locked up at the final hairpin three laps from the end, freeing up Gasly to make another challenge as Stevens struggled for pace.

The Frenchman got ahead on the final lap down the long backstraight, and while Stevens tried to fight back on the outside he was powerless to prevent the pass.

Sainz, nursing a flat-spotted left front tyre, attacked Stevens on the run to the chequered flag, but he ran wide through the final kink, rejoining the circuit just ahead of fifth-placed Zoel Amberg.

Roberto Merhi completed the top six, picking his way through the midfield from 14th on the grid, and surviving a bump with Sergey Sirotkin at Turn 1 as the pair passed the struggling Fantin.

That was one of several incidents or problems to affect Sirotkin's race, and his troubled afternoon eventually came to an end when he pitted with rear suspension damage in the closing stages.

Results - 24 laps

Pos Driver                Team         Time/Gap
 1. Oliver Rowland        Fortec       41m44.385s
 2. Pierre Gasly          Arden         +13.770s
 3. Will Stevens          Strakka       +14.764s
 4. Carlos Sainz Jr.      DAMS          +14.916s
 5. Zoel Amberg           AVF           +15.228s
 6. Roberto Merhi         Zeta Corse    +16.296s
 7. Marco Sorensen        Tech 1        +17.337s
 8. Matthieu Vaxiviere    Lotus         +19.236s
 9. Jazeman Jaafar        ISR           +24.481s
10. Norman Nato           DAMS          +28.141s
11. Meindert van Buuren   Pons          +34.736s
12. Pietro Fantin         Draco         +35.705s
13. Oliver Webb           Pons          +37.511s
14. Matias Laine          Strakka       +42.182s
15. Roman Mavlanov        Zeta Corse    +49.201s
16. Beitske Visser        AVF           +50.925s

Retirements/not classified

    Sergey Sirotkin       Fortec        19 laps
    William Buller        Arden         12 laps
    Marlon Stockinger     Lotus         12 laps
    Luca Ghiotto          Draco         0 laps
    Nikolay Martsenko     Comtec        0 laps